The Asagba of Asaba, Chike Edozien, on Friday urged President Goodluck Jonathan to find out the challenges facing Delta State and the need to boost the development of the state capital, Asaba.
The monarch made the request when the president paid him while in the state.
The monarch pleaded with Jonathan to dualise the road from Asaba through Agbor and Kogi to Abuja. The road had often been the scene of major accidents due to its nature as most parts of the stretch are narrow.
Edozien also appealed to Jonathan to raise the Asaba Airport to an international hub so as to boost commercial activities in the state and reduce travelling time of people.
Apart from these, he appealed to the President to compensate families of victims of the 1967 civil war massacred by the federal troops in Asaba. He further said Asaba needed a federal university to boost business activities adding that this request had been lingering since the era of former Presidents Ibrahim Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar and Olusegun Obasanjo, but none of them implemented it.
In his reply, Jonathan promised that his administration would continue to do its best and ensure peace and secure in the country.
“As your own son, I will keep faith with the promises that I made to you in public and in private to bring development to the country and Delta state will not be left out,” he said.
Jonathan said his administration established a maritime University in Delta, raised the Police Academy in Kaduna to a degree awarding institution and had created 12 other universities in states that had none.
He said his administration had eradicated Guinea Worm and Polio with the same vigour it drove out the Ebola Virus disease.
He said the aviation sector had witnessed a face-lift while the trains are back.
“We are marching on and in the next four years, if re-elected, we will take this country to an unimaginable height,” Jonathan said.
He added that the power sector reform has yielded dividends and this year would be the interface to move the sector from Federal Government control to private sector control.
