The youths from the Ten Local Government Councils of the catchment areas of Hydroelectric Power Producing Area Development Commission HYPPADEC in kogi state on Friday, in LoKoja staged peaceful procession to drum their support and appreciation to the commission for life transformation projects embarked in their Communities.
The Youths in their hundreds drawn for the Ten catchment local Government Areas of the state ,said the procession became necessary to register their appreciation to the Managing Director ,Alhaji Abubakar Sadiq Yelwa, Management and staff of the commission for their commitment to uplifting well-beings of the rural dwellers.
Speaking on behalf of the Youth, Ismail Aliyu Omeiza commended the commission for the enrollment of the youths in skill acquisition training that has equipped them for the economic challenges facing the youths in the state.
Omeiza who disclosed that before the formation of the commission, the youths in the catchment local Government Areas have lost hope, but said , it has restored their hope as they can conveniently face the future with success through the training.
He solicited for the enrollment of more youths in various skills acquisition to enable the youths who are wallowing in unemployment market to be trained in order to be useful to themselves and the society.
He appeal to the Management to to grant the first batch of the trainees with start up capital to enable them to practice what they have been trained for the benefit of their families and the society.
He challenged the trainees to take their training with all seriousness with the great expectations that in a short while they will become masters of their economic lives.
He commended the Commission for the provision of boreholes, transformers, Solar powered street lights, Scholarship to students in tertiary and Secondary Education and donation of over seven hundred motorcycles to communities to help fight Insecurity in the areas.
Responding, the kogi state Coordinator of the commission, Engineer Joan Oguche, thanked the youths for appreciating the little that the commission has done for them.
Oguche, who described the chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Sadiq Yelwa as a man whose passion is human development and given to due process, equity, fairness and justice in the distribution of projects to the Communities within the jurisdiction.
The Coordinator noted that the MD has been a man of high moral standards, with high regard to transparency and accountability in his running of the commission
She promise to take their requests to the Managing Director , assuring them of speedy actions on their demands.
In a remark, Alhaji Aliyu Seidu, a benefiting community leader, commended the Management team of the commission for bringing succour to the riverine communities who were hitherto forgotten,before the establishment of the commission, said ,he would have wished the commission was established earlier than now.
The community leader disclosed that he participated in the town hall meeting held in government House Lokoja organised by the commission sometimes ago in which number of requests were made, saying all the requests have been met in a few months.
He assured the commission of the needed support by the people to enable the Management to deliver on their mandates, while appealing for more projects and intervention that will alleviate the sufferings of the people.
In his remarks, Ismaila Omeiza, one of the master trainer, commended the Commission for the opportunity given to them to impart their knowledge and skills to the youths, saying the training has opened a new chapter in their lives that will transform them to be self reliant and employers of labour .
He urged the Management to provide start up fund for the trainees to enable them own their lives, stressing that knowledge not applied becomes a waste.
Recall that HYPPADEC came to being through Act of Parliament of 2010 and 2013 as amended to manage ecological menace due to activities of Dams and hydroelectric power on the six states within its operational jurisdiction in which Kogi state had seven Local Government areas listed on the commission.
