Senator representing Edo South Senatorial district in the Senate and chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, said he had fulfilled his electoral promises to the people of his Senatorial district in the 8th Senate .
Urhoghide, a Peoples Democratic Party Senator, who was returned unopposed at the last primary to fly the party’s Senatorial flag in the 2019 election, stated this at the third annual official and public presentation of scholarship awards of the Senator Urhoghide Scholarship Scheme held in Benin City, the Edo State capital, penultimate Saturday. He said that 263 students of Edo South had, so far, benefited from the scheme.
I have trained or caused to be trained over 3,700 persons in fields ranging from cosmetology to agro-forestry, machine equipment maintenance to skill acquisition and from machine technology entrepreneurship to tourist souvenir making
“On my campaign trail in 2015, I promised to, among other things, give out scholarship awards to indigent students with my allowances at the Senate. I can say with all modesty and in the presence of you all that I have kept faith with my promise; even exceeded them in lots of respects.
“Two hundred and sixty-three of them have so far benefited from the scheme. To qualify for it, an applicant has to reside within the district. Records of past beneficiaries show that indigenes and non-indigenes alike have gotten the award every year since the inception of the scheme.
The awards are also not prejudiced to sex, religion, ethnicity or political affiliations,” he added.
Urhoghide pointed out that he had to resort to recommending some students to other intervention agencies for scholarship and skills acquisition in the realisation that the scholarship scheme, being an individual effort, could not suffice for desiring Edo South indigenes to make the impact envisaged.
“Recognising that the Senator Matthew Urhoghide Scholarship Scheme, an individual effort, may not suffice to affect the most of people in the district as would make the kind of difference envisaged, I resorted to recommending Edo South indigenes to other scholarship awarding bodies like the Niger Delta Development Commission, Petroleum Trust Development Foundation,
etc.
“I am happy to announce to you today that in addition to the total number of direct beneficiaries from my scheme, I have recommended a total of 13 persons to those bodies and a greater part of that number won the
awards.
“I have trained or caused to be trained over 3,700 persons in fields ranging from cosmetology to agro-forestry, machine equipment maintenance to skill acquisition and from machine technology entrepreneurship to tourist souvenir making. I have also trained participants in cabin crew practices,travel agency operations tour guiding, tour packaging, event management, catering, solar energy training scheme,” he said.
Senator Urhoghide disclosed that the board of administrators of the scheme ensured that beneficiaries are selected equally from all the seven local government areas in Edo South.
While thanking the state Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki and the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, for the existing peace in the state, Senator Urhoghide assured that he would continue to fund the scholarship scheme as long as he represents his people in the Senate.
In his remarks, PDP governorship candidate in the 2016 Edo gubernatorial election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, thanked Senator Urhoghide for the annual scholarship awards.
He urged Edo South people not to take the scholarship scheme for granted as, according to him, Edo South has had representatives in the Senate before now and none had established a scheme such as this.
While urging the people to continue to support Senator Urhoghide and ensure his return to the Senate in 2019, Pastor Ize-Iyamu challenged the beneficiaries of the scholarship to work hard and be successful in their educational pursuits so as to make the Senator proud.
Highpoint of the event was the presentation of certificates of awards and cheques to the beneficiaries of the scholarship awards.
