Otti inaugurates new advisers, perm secs, others

…Wife heads commission

Alex Otti, governor of Abia State, has sworn-in four new Special Advisers and nine Permanent Secretaries into the State Civil Service.

Otti also inaugurated the Chairman and members of the Abia State Local Service Commission and Abia State Drug Control Committee.

The Abia governor, while performing the ceremonies at the Banquet Hall, Government House, Umuahia, disclosed that he had been assembling visionary individuals to assist him deliver on his mandate noting that in the last 18 months, his government had achieved set goals.

Otti hinted that he repeated the process of selection of Permanent Secretaries which he introduced last year, adding that all eligible directors who applied were subjected to exams and those who passed were interviewed.

The governor, who urged the appointees to imbibe excellence in their service delivery, disclosed that out of about 150 Directors that applied, 32 scored 50 percent and above but the first nine, including a non-indigene, were selected to fill the existing vacancies in the civil service.

He explained that his administration does not discriminate against LGA or state one comes from but only interested in results.
“You may have heard that I cancelled State of Origin. So, if you live in this state and pay tax in this state and you do everything with us, it would not be at the time you would benefit that you will hear that you are not from here.
“For us, what is important is result. We don’t care who gives us the result,” Otti stated.

Otti noted that the inauguration of the members of the Local Government Commission was very important now that the state has elected Mayors at the council areas as well as the pronouncement of local government autonomy by the Supreme Court of Nigeria,” he said.

He said that members of the newly inaugurated Local Government Commission are people who have excelled in their previous assignments and charged them to be committed to their new responsibilities for greater services to the people.

On the newly inaugurated State Drug Control Committee headed by Priscilla Otti, wife of the governor, Otti said that the committee was key to the social restoration agenda of his administration and in line with his determination to nipping in the bud the menace of drug abuse.

Read also: Otti presents N750bn budget estimate to state assembly for approval

The governor said that his administration was very passionate in working with relevant stakeholders in winning the war against drug and substance abuse and other social vices.

The newly sworn-in Permanent Secretaries include: Chibuzo Ehiemere,, Jane Ngarasi, Ihemanma Okechukwu, Ekeoma Chigozie, and Ekaite Eyo Oha.

Others are Ejikeme Emmanuel Ekwueme, Jane Olanma Awa, Chinyere Juliet Okeziem and Ukandu Adaojie Obinma.

The State Drug Control Committee has the wife of the governor, Kenneth Kalu, Okey Kanu, commissioner for Information and Stakeholders from relevant agencies and NGOs while the Abia State Local Government Service Commission has James Nwokocha as Chairman and five other members.

Ndubuisi Ike, a Special Adviser, and James Nwokocha, Chairman Local Government Service Commission, in their separate responses thanked Otti for considering them fit for the new assignments.
They promised to be active partners of the governor’s vision of a better and progressive new Abia.