Ayade suspends Water Resources Commissioner, MD for lateness
Cross River State governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, yesterday suspended
indefinitely, the Commissioner for Water Resources, Ntufam Gabe Odu Ojie,
and the Managing Director of Water Board Limited, Dr. Oju Igile for
reporting to work late.
The governor announced their suspension during his routine but unscheduled
tour of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to ensure that civil
and public servants comply strictly with basic work ethics.
Speaking to news men at the premises of the Ministry in Calabar, Ayade
said it was an act of indiscipline for appointees not to be at their duty
post before 9.00am, maintaining that the suspension would serve as
deterrent to other government employees, as well as appointees.
His words: “This is about 9 o'clock in the morning and the Commissioner
for Water Resources is not at his duty post. The Managing Director of
Cross River State Water Board is not in the office. I cannot understand
why he is not in the office. I therefore, with immediate effect, announce
his suspension. We wll appoint somebody to take over this office with
immediate effect. Any single commissioner I find in this circumstance will
leave.”
After making the pronouncement, Governor Ayade also supervised a roll call
of staff who signed the time book as of the time of his visit to check
truancy.
Accordingly, the governor also directed that all erring staff be
disciplined in line with the civil service rules.
On the irregular water supply experienced by residents in the metropolis
in recent past, Ayade who averred that part of the reason he embarked on
the visit was because of concerns raised about irregular water supply to
the citizenry, frowned on the action of the Port Harcourt Electricity
Distribution Company (PHED) for disconnecting power supply to the water
board.
“After paying N14 million billing charge, there's no reason, given the
circumstances of the time, that power should be disconnected from Cross
River State Water Board. We find this totally unacceptable. We believe
that we have invested enough in PHED and we expect that they show us
understanding,” he queried.
Governor Ayade subsequently called on the Federal Government to compel the
distribution company to be accountable to the state government in view of
its investment through the provision of transformers to aid their
business.
He assured the citizenry that normalcy will soon return in the supply of
water.
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