Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, says he would appoint new commissioners into the state executive council three weeks from now.

Ikpeazu dropped the hint during a live radio programme at Magic FM, Aba, yesterday; an opportunity he also used to promise that arrears of salaries owed workers in the state would be cleared by Octobber.

According to the Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Ugochukwu Emezue, the governor gave reasons for the delay in naming new commissioner, attributing it to the need to put a strong template in place before ushering in the new EXCO members.

Emezue quoted the governor in his facebook account as saying during the programme: “The architecture for the state exco is ready and soon I will make public, the names of new commissioners.”

Ikpeazu has been piloting the affairs of the state with the assistance of the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Chief Umeh Kalu, the only Commissioner appointed so far.

Also, the Governor’s Senior Special Assistant on e-governance, Obed Nnaji Asiegbu in a statement made available to News Express, quoted the governor as promising to clear arrears of salaries owed civil servants in the state as soon as the state accesses its share of the bailout fund.

“By October 30, 2015, Abia State workers wouldn’t be owed a penny in arrears of salary. All salary arrears would have been cleared,” Asiegbu quoted the governor as saying.

“The governor particularly stated during the Magic FM 102.9 Aba Radio programme this morning that Abia State has not collected the bailout funds from the federal government. And as soon as the bailout funds get to the state treasury, the payment of salary arrears will be effected without delay.”

According to him, the governor equally promised to begin the reconstruction major roads in the state that are in very poor shape. He named the roads to include that of Arochukwu, Aba/Port Harcourt and Ohanku in Aba in his next 100 days in office. It would be recalled that the Arochukwu road collapsed last month, turning a trip to the ancient kingdom a nightmare.

Ikpeazu, Obed continued, assured the young and unemployed Abians of his plan to create sustainable jobs through the Education for Employment (E4E) programme, a scheme designed to teach the youths skills that would guarantee them sustainable jobs, either as employees or self-employed.

•Photo shows Gov Ikpeazu.

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