Akwa Ibom, commissioner for Information, Ini Ememobong has identified accelerated rural development as the primary reason Governor Umo Eno has forwarded to the state House of Assembly, a bill seeking to mandate council chairmen to reside in their respective areas.
Other executive bills forwarded by the Governor to the Assembly are: a bill for a law to establish Ibom Peace Corps and for connected purposes and a bill for a law to make special provisions for Statutory Boards in Akwa Ibom State and for connected purposes.
Ememobong gave the explanations recently when he said: “What has driven this move is because the Governor is interested in rural development.
“Therefore, when this law is passed, it will become an obligation for Local Government Chairmen to stay in their local government areas.
“For instance, agriculture is in the rural areas and we need public officials to stay in their domains to protect our investment in those areas.
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“To this end, the Governor has said that he will make rural areas to be comfortable for public officers to live because, you can’t live in the cosmopolitan area of the state and be answerable to your people in the rural areas.”
On how Eno’s administration is working to ameliorate the biting effects of fuel subsidy removal, Ememobong said: “The state government has set up a committee which has members of Labour and other CSOs as members with Secretary to State Government as the head.
“That Committee has wrapped up its report. The Governor is particular about it and has insisted that we must get these palliatives to the poorest of the poor. Therefore, we are developing a strategy to ensure that these palliatives get to the villages and every single person who needs it.
“What Akwa Ibom is doing differently is that we are not just interested in the short term intervention palliatives, the Governor is also trying to create a system that dovetails from the palliatives into sustainable means of poverty reduction.”
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Meanwhile, Ememobong has assured that Akwa Ibom State Government will continue to protect the people, environment and their sources of livelihood.
The assurance is in view of the recent flood prediction outlook for Akwa Ibom State by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMET.
“The Governor is adopting the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) model, which is why he has directed that all flood channels in the state must be desilted.”
“He (the Governor) has also started ‘a war’ against improperly terminated drains by contractors. We are making sure that our water ways are cleared by ensuring that people don’t put dirt there in readiness to accept external water as predicted,” he further said.
On the recent relocation order issued by the Akwa Ibom State Government to a motor brake pad manufacturing company owned by Chinese nationals, sited within residential area in the state capital, Uyo, he said: Governor Umo Eno is a business-friendly person and has said that he wants to make Akwa Ibom a place to be by attracting businesses to the state. So, he is very careful not to scare businesses that are already on ground, but must be made to operate within our laws, in order to protect our people and our environment.
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“Where that company is situated is within a residential area and they emit very unbearable stench. But the Governor in exercise of maturity and restraint has asked them to relocate to our industrial estate where they will be given land as long as how and what they are doing is not harmful to our people and the environment.”
He confirmed that the state government has handed the owners of the company their demands in line with its objective to continue to protect Akwa Ibom citizens without destroying the business.
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