Governor Rochas Okorocha with Chief Willie Amadi (1st left) Commissioner representing Imo State in the Public Complaints Commission, Deputy Speaker Imo State House of Assembly Rt. Hon Ugonna Ozuruigbo (1st right) when the Commissioner and his team paid courtesy call on the governor at the Government House on Monday, November 19, 2018.
Imo
State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha has said that his Rescue
Mission Government in the State is open to constructive criticisms
but takes exception to politically motivated criticisms that do not
reflect any practical reality.
The
governor spoke on Monday when the Federal Commissioner representing
Imo State in the Public Complaints Commission, Chief Willie Amadi and
his team paid him Courtesy Call at the Government House, Owerri.
The
governor remarked that the Public Complaints Commission must take
note that Nigeria is in a serious problem with this issue of what he
called “Elastic Freedom” that allows people to go on
the internet and misrepresent facts, regretting that if one should be
relying on stories on social media, the person might be making a
great mistake.
His
words, “The worst part of it now is that it is no longer an attack
on governments, but on individuals. People are defaming others on
daily basis because they have access to phones, they can touch a few
buttons and send out the wrong messages, and completely misinform the
members of the public”.
He
continued “For the very reason that the commission works to ensure
checks and balances between the employee and the employers of labour,
let it be known to you that Imo State Government has paid salaries of
November in the first week of the month, thereby reversing the entire
law of nature which says you must work before you get paid but in
this case, they get paid before they work. And that is a great
innovation and all to ensure that we alleviate the sufferings of the
ordinary citizens in the State”.
His
words, “Again we have also set aside N5billion to offset all
outstanding Pension Arrears by this administration. I also want to
inform that this is the only State as far as I can tell, that has
built headquarters for the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), to bring
about synergy between labour and government. We have also built
complexes for Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Christian
Association of Nigeria (CAN). All these are to make sure that
institutions work”.
The
governor further explained “Talking about this decision to move
Ekeukwu Market, you were once the Chairman of ENTRACO in this State,
and I know that you did a publication showing that there was EXCO
decision during Ohakim’s time to remove Ekeukwu Market and you are
the Chairman of that Committee and all efforts you people made could
not work. But we came in with a greater political will to relocate it
to a different place because its location is not good for the
security of the State and it created so much problem for traffic in
the land. These are some of the complaints that might be reaching you
but I’m happy that you are in a better position to answer those
questions having been one of those who pioneered this very move to do
so”.
He
stressed “It is also very important to inform you that some of the
speculations on demolitions is not true. All we have done in the
course of Urban Renewal was to carefully remove fences though we had
always said there should be no fencing within the capital city. It’s
only in this part of the world that people build houses in the
capital city and fence them which encourages criminal activities.”
In
his speech earlier, the Commissioner, Chief Amadi said that they were
on a courtesy visit to interface with the government, adding that the
commission functions as an alternative dispute resolution that takes
complaints from the Public and Civil Servants, private and public
companies even multi-nationals.
He
appealed to the governor to facilitate prompt responses to their
letters to Agencies of government so as to inform distressed people
correctly since they don’t have access to vital reasons why
government took certain decisions.
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