Abia State governor, Alex Otti late Wednesday declared a state of emergency on refuse disposal in the state and defied the downpour in Aba to supervise the clearing of heaps of refuse on the popular Asa road.

Otti had in his inaugural address Monday, declared a state of emergency on the clearing of wastes in the streets of Umuahia, the state capital and Aba, while on Tuesday directed Permanent Secretaries in the state to function as Commissioners until he releases his appointments.

Towards ensuring the cleanliness for which the state was known in the past, he subsequently appointed Mr Ogbonnia Okereke as the head of the task force to implement the refuse disposal emergency, and participated in the flag-off of the exercise in both Aba and Umuahia, even though it rained.

Speaking during the occasions, Otti said, “I wish to thank all those working pro-bono to ensure that our towns are clean, and all who braved the rain to give effect to the directive we gave two days ago, declaring an emergency on the cleanup of Aba and Umuahia.”

Otti who flagged off the exercise by driving a payloader to the admiration of Abians, later said in his Twitter handle, “Today, I supervised the cleanup exercise for Aba and Umuahia, which commenced yesterday.

“I wish to thank all those working pro-bono to ensure that our towns are clean, and all who braved the rain to give effect to the directive we gave two days ago.”

Earlier in the week, Otti had held a closed-door meeting with Permanent Secretaries in the state, informing the press later that he met with them to “familiarize himself with them and to understand how they are doing their job.”

However, in a press release, his Chief Press Secretary, (CPS) disclosed that the governor had described the Permanent Secretaries in the state’s civil service as the engine room of government and demanded transparency in the conduct of government business from them.

Otti directed them to take charge of the various ministries until a new set of commissioners are appointed by the new government but warned them against undermining the new government, adding “Every four years, election happen and winners get sworn in. In most places, those who lost become opposition. So, being that we’re all winners, I believe that we won’t have opposition. But just in case there’s opposition, it is also part of governance and democracy.

Waste disposal

“We welcome opposition. Constructive engagement is also welcome. Disagreeing with us is part of the business. You can never know it all. If you have an opinion feel free to express it.

“I must tell you that you’re the engine room of the government and that’s why I thought that the first meeting that I will hold will be with all of you.

“I do know that a lot of you would have different political persuasions and alliances and allegiance, that is not a problem. But what will be the problem is if you begin to undermine the government that you serve and when we notice that, we will not waste time to act because this is a government that must work and anything that stands in the way, we will get it out.

“We will not witch-hunt people and we will not deal with people because of their persuasions, whether it is ethnic, religious and all that. At the end of the day, it is the interest of the state that is paramount.

“You will begin to function as commissioners until new commissioners are appointed. I’m sure you understand what I’m saying, that is, that government is a continuum. So ensure you take over and begin to run your different ministries and by the time new commissioners come, you will handover to them.

“This is a familiarisation meeting, where I will listen to you and get to understand what you do; get to understand how you do it and any help or support you require,” Otti said.

The permanent secretaries were led by the Head of Service of the state, Sir Onyii Nwama. (Nigerian Tribune)

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