Otti  inaugurates 5 roads to mark 100 days in office

*Mecure renovated, opens for service

From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia

Abia State government says five of the 11 roads in Aba it embarked to reconstruct when the Governor Alex Otti administration came on board on May 29, and another road in Obehie would be inaugurated on Wednesday, September 6, 2023 to mark its 100 days in office, even as rehabilitation of three general hospitals, one in each of the three senatorial zones were almost completed.

Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu, who made this known while briefing newsmen at Government House, Umuahia, on Tuesday, on the outcome of this week’s Executive Council (EXCO) meeting presided by the Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, said that the administration has been laying foundations to improve governance, enthrone sanity in the civil service and create environmental consciousness in the psyche of Abians, among other steps, all geared towards the building of a new Abia.

“Following Governor Alex Otti’s approach to governance, we have been busy working. From inception, Governor Otti declared state of emergency in the areas of waste management, health, road infrastructure, education and security, among others; and achievements have been recorded in this critical areas.

“Besides, some processes have been put in place to improve governance. Reforms are going on to reposition the civil service which is the bulwark of support for the government,” Kanu said in recap of government activites in the past 100 days.

Other cabinet members who were with Kanu during the briefing were his Health counterpart, Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okoronkwo; the Special Adviser to the Governor on Policies and Interventions, Rev. Father Christian Anokwuru and the State Accountant-General, Dr. Njum Onyemenam.

The Information Commissioner listed the roads for inauguration to include Umuimo, Emelogu, Jubilee, Cemetery and Shallom Roads, all in Aba, as well as the 1.2 kilomtre Umuokomiri Obehie road in Ukwa West local government area.

Kanu futher disclosed that the three hospitals earmarked for renovation and rehabilitation in Aba, Umuahia and Umunneoato following the declaration of state of emergency in the health sector were almost completed. This, he said, was in addition to the ongoing free medical services now extended to the end of the year and expanded to cover local governments in the state, just as enumeration of pensioners to enable the senior citizens enjoy the  Abia Health health insurance scheme has almost been concluded.

According to the Commissioner, the groundbreaking ceremony of the Abia Industrial Innovation Park, earlier scheduled for September 6, has been shifted to September 29 because “interested companies were still discussing with the state government.”

On environmental sanitation,  he said the EXCO decided to extend the monthly sanitation exercise to all parts of the state, after using Aba and Umuahia as the pilot phase in the last three months.

He said the Abia State Orientation Agency would soon embark on vigorous enlightenment campaigns across the state to educate the citizenry on the need for them to imbibe cleanliness and also keep their environment clean. He said the goal of the Governor Otti-led administration was to make Abia the cleanest state in Nigeria.

Speaking further on activities in the health sector, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okoronkwo, said that the Abia State Specialist Hospital and Diagnostic Centre (also known as Mecure) in Umuahia which has been moribund since 2020, has been completely renovated and now ready for use as it has been fully re-equipped, adding that it would serve as the prototype of the health services that government would in all its hospitals. “All tests will be run at the hospital, except DNA test,” she said.

According to her, in the government’s efforts to make its hospitals functional,  Medical Doctors have been posted to Ugwunagbo and Obehie General Hospitals, while Aba Cottage hospital is almost completed. She assured that government hospitals would now begin to offer affordable comprehensive quality medical services when they start operations.

On the issue of palliatives to cushion the effect of hardship imposed on the people by the hasty removal of fuel subsidy, the Information  Commissioner said that details of how to deploy the N2 billion loan from the federal government would be made available soon, maintaining that the State Government would roll out its own palliatives after it was through with that of the federal government which was going on smoothly.

Contributing, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Policies and Interventions, Rev. Father Christian Anokwuru, said that EXCO has decided to invest the loan on transportation, adding that the decision was to enable people of other categories to benefit from the palliatives since the state government had earlier resolved that the rice from the federal government would only be shared to the poorest of the poor in the communities.

Revealing reports of the distribution and sharing of the rice reaching government were favourable, Rev. Fr. Anokwuru said that that state has received a total of 16,800 bags of rice so far from the federal government, disclosing that each ward would get 90 bags. Already, he said, 55 bags have been shared to each of the 184 wards in the state while the remaining 35 bags would get to the wards on Wednesday, September 6.

He said the state has already commenced providing its own palliatives with the tax-free months and free medical services, adding that more strategies would be evolved with time, as he said that provision of palliatives was “not a one-off thing.”

On the complaints of non-payment of salaries associated with the ongoing verification of civil servants, the State Accountant-General, Dr. Njum Onyemenam, explained that government was working stealthily to resolve all issues arising from the exercise.

Onyemenam disclosed that government was working out a consolidated payroll system to eliminate double entries of the names of civil servants in the payroll. “The State is committed to ensuring that everyone is paid. We will pay all who are justified for payment. Abia is working on a consolidated payroll system where each worker’s name should appear once,” she said, adding that government would settle issues of omission and other complaints about salaries.