April 27, 2018

A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain in Plateau, Mr Gwaman Datong, has urged the electorate to take part in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) to empower them for voting in the 2019 general elections.

In a statement issued in Abuja by him on Friday, he said taking part in the exercise was the only way the electorate could have their choice of leaders.

“I have been going round and meeting people telling them to make sure that they get registered and obtain their Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC).

“This is because we can’t make the change we desired without getting the PVC,’’ Dalong, who is seeking PDP’s nomination to contest the state governorship election in 2019.

He urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to engage in more aggressive campaign towards sensitising the electorate to CVR.

“We need strong running system that will give constant information, especially those at the grassroots on the exercise,’’ Datong said.

Stating his plan for the state if he became the governor of Plateau, Datong said his vision was to lay a solid foundation for the development of the state.

“We will start by encouraging science education right from primary school because am looking at building for the future.

“We are going to encourage going to the sciences because in the nearest future, we will have people to build the future for Plateau.

“Am not looking at the agricultural sector in terms of produce alone but how do we process the produce a little to add value.

“I visited an incubation centre in Jos and I was shown carrot oil, I was surprised, because this is what we can harness as we have lots of carrots in the state.

“So if we can work towards processing our carrots to a certain level, we will make lots of money from both internal and export market.

“We also have lots of yam in the state, people come and buy them remove the water and send them back to us as yam powder; we can start processing them locally to make extra money,’’ Datong said.

“Similarly, emphasis should be on women development programmes because women constitute more than 50 per cent of the population in the state,’’ Datong said.