TheCable

Ireti Kingibe, senatorial candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the federal capital territory (FCT), says the nation’s capital lacks “credible representation”.

Speaking on Tuesday at a media briefing in Abuja, Kingibe said aside from the highbrows areas in the FCT, there is “zero development” in Abuja, especially in the suburbs.

The senatorial candidate said the nation’s capital has regressed to irrelevance and poverty, adding that if elected into office, she will work to restore glory to the FCT.

Kingibe is running against Philip Aduda, incumbent senator and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who has served three terms since 2011.

“I’m running because I see a great lapse and lacuna in representation in the FCT,” she said.

“I’ve lived in the FCT since 1988 and I’ve watched FCT grow from a place where people lived in life camps to a point where people developed, and FCT was number one and everybody looked at it to be the model and pilot.

“If you look at the FCT, if you remove Maitama, Asokoro, Wuse 2, CBD, and the airport road, there’s nothing. The development is zero. You can’t go to Nyanya and see decent roads. No place has water, no place has light in 2023.

“FCT has two budgets. Really, it needs to do a lot more than it is doing. What I am bringing is credible representation.”

Kingibe said one of her focal points if elected would be to tackle violence against women in the FCT.

“One of the things I’m passionate about is violence against women. I’ll be creating what I call ‘Ireti Marshals’ who are going to be in the wards,” she said.

“In your community, if there is a problem, we’ll get to hear it from the marshals. I’m working on it and I’m going to fund it to ensure that violence against women is mitigated and eradicated.”

Kingibe said she does not foresee the 10th national assembly being dominated by one or two major political parties.

“When bills come, we should be able to negotiate with each other and get them passed,” the ex-wife of Babagana Kingibe, a former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), said.

“The national assembly, this time around, might not be the one we are used to when we have two major parties and I’m counting LP as also a major party.”