A gubernatorial aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Mr. Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe, has said if voted as governor of the state in 2019, his main priority will be to empower the less privileged and eliminate poverty among the masses.
Speaking at Are Avenue, Bodija, Ibadan where he empowered 100 widows and five indigent students across the 11 local government areas of Ibadanland, with foods, clothes and cash gifts worth millions of naira, the politician said he was ready to help his people.
Operating under his five year- old philanthropy organisation: ‘Tegbe Foundation’, Tegbe said: “Poverty and starvation have pervaded the land such that basic social and economic needs are lacking in the lives of many people. Many people die as a result of avoidable causes, and this is seriously contributing to the nation’s lack of expected developments.
“If I become the governor of Oyo State, I will put smiles on the faces of many people through social and economic welfare packages I have devised. What we are doing today is just a tip off the iceberg.” Aside the widows he empowered, he also announced that five indigent students from Ibadanland would also benefit from a scholarship programme to study in some Asian countries.
Tegbe, who was born in Oyo Town and of Ibadan ancestral descent from Jegede compound in Labo area of Ibadan, is a First Class graduate of Civil Engineering from the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife in Osun State. While presenting the gift items, he said he had been impacting the needy in various areas of the state but shifted his attention to the widows in Ibadanland, New Telegraph reports.
“In order to make life meaningful for the less privileged, the needy, reach out to them and make them happy. I have been doing this twice in a year for the past five years, particularly to people from other parts of Oyo State, but I am doing this specifically for the core people of Ibadan.
“I am also giving out scholarship to five indigent, but brilliant students of Ibadanland, who will have their university education in some of the Asian countries. Solid arrangments have been put in place for this and it is intended to support the needy and relieve them from their grief. After today, I will call the widows individually to know where their shoes pinch them and soothen their pains,” Tegbe said.