By CHARLES IWUOHA

Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi has dissolved all boards and commissions in the state with immediate effect.

He announced this during his 2021 anniversary day address to the people of the state.

Also sacked are management Committee members, liaison officers and local government advisory committee at all the 64 local government areas and 171 wards in the state.

Also affected by the sack are all the Executive Assistants, Technical Assistants and Senior Technical Assistants to the governor.

Put together, those sacked are over 1,000.

The sack comes barely 24 hours after the governor sacked 83 members of the state executive council.

He, however, noted that some statutory boards are not affected by the dissolution.

They include Judiciary Service Commission, House of Assembly Service Commission, Civil Service Commission, Local Government Service Commission and Ebonyi State Independent Electoral Commission (EBSIEC).

The governor said the sack became necessary because some of the appointees have sympathy for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He also stated that the sack is to enable those who want to contest the local government elections next year and the All Progressives Congress (APC) congress to take part in the elections.

Meanwhile, Umahi has urged the people of the state to ignore the sit-at-home order by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and go about their normal activities.

He gave the advice on Saturday in Abakaliki, the state capital.

He said: “I have been getting voices from certain agitators that tomorrow there will be no movement, this is foolishness. If there is no movement in the southeast, is there no movement in the whole country? What an Ebonyi man will never accept is to go into second slavery under any guise.

“We know the Biafra we need is to have enough money so that we cleanse up the toga of the slavery that our brothers and sisters subjected us into when we were under what they want us to be under.

“We need money, if you love Ebonyi State, bring money, come up and put one construction. Let us see your houses and investments in Ebonyi State.

“So, I want to say that there will free movement throughout today, throughout tomorrow and ongoing.

“I challenge the youths, the local government Chairmen and the politicians, the stakeholders, the security agencies to ensure that nobody is molested and I have banned any form of procession or gathering till further notice in Ebonyi State.

“On Sunday, I will want people who are of Christian faith to go about their church services and pray for our nation, pray for the souls that have departed both during the war and now that people are being killed.

“On Monday, markets must be fully operational. Anybody whose store is not opened will forfeit the store. I ask the security agencies to massively deploy security people to protect Ebonyians everywhere.”

The governor advised any group involved in any form of agitation in the region to do so peacefully.

“Let us stay in peace, agitation does not mean violence. Agitation does not mean insulting leaders of this country, agitation does not mean killing security agencies. When Mandela fought for the liberation of South Africa, he was there.

“Let all the freedom fighters for southeast come down to southeast so that we can all be together. We should not stay outside the country and be vomiting rubbish and collecting hard currencies and be luring our people to be destroyed,” he said.

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