September 02, (THEWILL) – Ebonyi State Governor, Francis Nwifuru, has warned contractors handling various projects in the state to complete them within the allotted time or face severe sanctions.
Nwifuru, in a post on his official Facebook handle, restated his unhappiness with the contractors, warning that he would not allow anyone to play around with government funds.
The Governor, who had threatened contractors handling three hundred and thirty-eight projects in the state, said that the government was not seeing any progress in the contracts awarded.
He, therefore, gave a deadline of September 15 to the Commissioner for Housing to arrest anybody handling the Izzo and Amanze Housing units irrespective of the person’s position.
Nwifuru said, “Yesterday, during my remarks at the 2024 Grand Finale of Ojiji Izhi, I addressed three pertinent points in today’s polity.
“Firstly, Ebonyi State is ready and willing to pay the N70,000 minimum wage as passed by the National Assembly during the recent amendment of the 2019 Minimum Wage Act.
“This payment will commence once the Head of Service and those in charge conclude on the formula for the payment.
“Secondly, I am unhappy about the reports I received from my Senior Special Assistants and Special Assistants regarding the ongoing works and contracts across the State. Currently, we have 338 projects under contractors in the State.
“Out of that 338, 292 are road construction, and we are not seeing any progress of work. Our Government will not condone such.
“Particularly, I have instructed the Commissioner for Housing that from 15th of September, 2024, any of the contractors handling the Izzo and Amanze Housing Units and are yet to paint theirs should be arrested, irrespective of who the person is.
“They have pushed me to the wall and I will not allow anyone to play around with Government funds.
“Thirdly, we have been implementing financial autonomy of Local Government Areas. And so, for us in Ebonyi State, there is nothing new with the financial autonomy proclaimed by the Supreme Court.
“However, the ruling does not vitiate the existence of Development Centres. As such, our Chairmen are expected to know that their resources are jointly owned with Development Centre Coordinators, according to the sharing formula stated by the Law of the State. This is how meaningful development will be felt down our rural areas. We will continue to serve our people, according to their NEEDS,” he said.
Sunday Ogbu is a professional journalist with eight - twelve years experience that had worked with various print and online media. Sunday specializes in news reporting with the aim of educating his readers on current social, political and economic occurences within his area of coverage. Sunday is a strong force to work with in the media industry and uses his positive attitude and tireless energy to encourage others to work hard and succeed. Sunday is inspired daily by his wife and their four children. In his free time, Sunday likes sight-seeing, reading and discussing issues of societal interest.
