Wife of Ondo State Governor, Mrs Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, has declared ambition to run for Imo East senatorial seat ahead of the 2023 general election.

Mrs Akeredolu said she is running for Imo East Senatorial District election in 2023 to lead the leadership conversation on behalf of her people.

The Ondo First Lady stated this during an interaction with members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Imo Council, in Owerri, the Imo State capital on Friday.

She said her decision to run for Senate on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) stemmed from the neglect of the senatorial district by successive administrations and legislators.

Mrs. Akeredolu stated that the level of neglect has remote and helpless, despite the rapid urbanisation of other parts of the state.

Anyanwu-Akeredolu decried the poor refuse disposal system in the area and the high number of preventable deaths, especially among women, occasioned by lack of standard medical facilities in the senatorial district.

The governor’s wife, who noted that she had never lost touch with her biological birthplace in the last 40 years that she had gotten married, said that she was conversant with developments at home.

“I have deep interest in human capital development and a deep-seated desire to improve the lives of my people from Imo,” she said.

The Ondo First Lady, who added that “leadership is not gender-specific”, said she had a greater chance to change the narrative in Imo East senatorial district as an Igbo daughter, with Yoruba in-laws, to lobby for projects that would impact on the lives of her people.

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Mrs. Akeredolu said: “I have demonstrated this ability to handle the position with the many development projects I had attracted to my community in the past.

“I have ensured that my development projects, as the wife of a sitting governor, are extended to my state of origin.

“I attracted the construction of a 10.5km road, worth N1.6 billion from Niger Delta Development Commission and it is currently under construction.

“I have also sponsored no fewer than 200 girls, with technological knowledge and special focus on Information Communication Technology, among others,” she stated.

The governor’s wife, who said there was lack of direction, compassion and understanding presently to improve the lives of the people in the constituency, solicited for support to represent the people.

She further expressed her readiness to align with her party’s decision if a consensus candidate for the senatorial district was approved.

The Star