Vice-President Good-luck Jonathan has enjoined Nigerian entrepreneurs to invest in the Niger-Delta, to arrest the negative socio-economic trends in the region.
Also, Governor of Delta State Emmanuel Uduaghan, has pledged the support and encouragement of his administration to any local investor who embarks on job-creating ventures in the state.
These remarks were contained in goodwill messages weekend, at the official opening of the 240-room state-of-the-art Woodridge Hotel at Effurun, along the Warri-Aladja Expressway, in Warri, Delta State. The federal and state governments commended proprietor of the Gotel, Chief Kenneth Gbagi, for citing the imposing edifice in the Niger-Delta, with both claiming that the initiative was in consonance with their socio-economic agenda.
Gbagi, a gubernatorial aspirant in the last general election in Delta State and Chairman of the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, is also the architect of a 500-unit shopping complex located in the heart of Warri. Goodluck�s message was read by Senator Fred Brume, while Delta State Deputy Governor, Professor Amos Utuama, represented Uduaghan.
Jonathan stressed the fact that the proprietor could have the courage to embark on projects of such magnitude in the heart of the troubled Niger-Delta, whereas several endowed people from the area were busy trying to complicate issues in the region by sponsoring arms running, vandalism of pipelines and hostage-taking.
Such ventures as the Gbagi initiative, especially by indigenes of the area, would go along way in checking youth restiveness and violence and plugging of foreign and local investment avenues, the Vice-President pointed out.The chairman of the occasion, the retired Gen. Oluwole Rotimi, as well as the special-guest-of-honour who performed the commissioning ceremony, Chief Edwin K. Clark, also emphasized the need for endowed Niger-Deltans to lead the way in the effort to particularly step up social and economic development in the oil-rich region.