David Umahi says he liberated Ebonyi from the shackles of underdevelopment, rejection and dejection during his eight-year tenure as governor.

Mr Umahi stated this during a pre-inauguration-gala night on Sunday night in Abakaliki.

Mr Umahi said Ebonyi is now a “reference point in innovative development.”

“We can say that we have run a race, we have fought the good fight, we have finished the race, we have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7),” he added.

On his performance as governor, Mr Umahi said his administration succeeded in different fields, including education, infrastructure, rural electrification projects, human empowerment, and agriculture.

“So far, we have reduced the rate of out-of-school children from 12 per cent to two per cent,” stated Mr Umahi. “We constructed brand new school buildings numbering over 4,000 and renovated over 3,000 school buildings scattered in 13 local government areas of the state.”

The governor further expressed joy for keeping his promise on road infrastructure.

“When I came on board, we made sure that every local government area had at least 40 kilometres of road done in rigid pavement,” he explained. “We created more satellite towns in each of the senatorial zones and more roads to bring the satellite towns to a befitting status. A total of 1,500-kilometre roads had been constructed in the state under my administration, and those roads have helped in inter-community connectivity.”

Kelechi Igwe, his deputy, who gave the toast, described Mr Umahi as a visionary governor and prayed to God to see him through life endeavours. 

(NAN)