The leaders of Peoples Democratic Party PDP Ward 3 in Illah, Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta, on Sunday empowered no fewer than 300 persons with motorcycles and modern farming equipment.
The gesture by the leaders also included cash gifts ranging from 5,000 to 100,000 to 200 women, youths, villages and camps inhabited by non-indigenes.
The disbursement was done at an enlarged meeting of members of the Party drawn from the nine communities in the Ward.
Items given to beneficiaries were 10 motorcycles, 50 agro-chemical spraying machines, 50 cartons of herbicides, 50 cutlasses, and the cash gifts to no fewer than 300 party faithful.
Addressing the mammoth crowd, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Olisa Ifeajika: Director-General, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Dr Andy Ilabor and PDP House of Assembly Candidate for the Local Government, Mr Frank Esenwa, said it was part of measures to reward party loyalists for their support over the years.
They said that Oshimili North was the home of PDP and pledged to give 100 per cent votes to the party in the 2023 general elections.
The ward 3 Chairman of the PDP, Mr Nelson Okonma, said the money used for the procurement of the items and cash given to beneficiaries were gotten from the proceeds from delegates from the ward who participated in the recent primaries of the party and contributions from party leaders in the Ward.
The trio called on members of the party to redouble support to enable the town deliver all candidates of the party in the forthcoming elections.
Other speakers lauded the leadership and stakeholders of the party for spreading the empowerment to all parts of the ward and advised other wards and local governments in the state to emulate Ward 3.
At the event, some members of the APC from the ward, including a former councillorship candidate, Mr Anthony Dibia, defected to the PDP.
Receiving the decampees, the Assistant State Organising Secretary of the PDP, Mr Uche Egbuche, said that the party was big enough to accommodate all, and assured them of fair treatment in the scheme of things.
He equally commended the party leadership in Illah for the empowerment of party members, saying it would boost the fortunes of the party in the area.
The leader of the decampees, Dibia, said the achievements of Governor Okowa and his emergence as Vice-Presidential candidate of the PDP and Esenwa who is candidate for Oshimili North State Constituency contributed immensely to their decision to defect from their former party.
Highpoint of the occasion was the presentation of the items to beneficiaries, including the motorcycles won through balloting.
