Ikpeazu to review govt activities every 100 days

TO keep him committed to his campaign promises, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has set a target to assess his administration’s achievements against set goals every 100 days.

In his maiden interaction with journalists in Umuahia, Ikpeazu said he would be guided by this approach in assessing his government’s progress in its five pillars – trade, commerce, education, oil/gas and agriculture.

According to him, this has already taken off in Aba, the pivot of economic activities, with ongoing construction work on seven roads. This, however, begins with a socio-economic analysis of all projects, he noted. Within the first 100 days, he said, 100 truckloads of wastes would be evacuated daily as a routine de-silting of drainages is done.

The governor disclosed that a new waste collection schedule would soon begin, whereby house-to-house refuse collection at nights would replace the present use of dump-stands.

He stated his resolve to reposition not only Aba but the entire state as SMSE hub in Nigeria such that exporters and government agencies would adopt their leather and allied products.

On civil servants’ salary arrears, Ikpeazu said: “We need a sizable workforce hence we must fish out ghost workers and attain at least N1.5 billion monthly Internally Generated Revenue status against the present N300 to 600 million. Only the state’s Inland Revenue service can collect government revenue and all payments must be through the banks.”

However, he insisted that all illegal structures on drainages would be demolished, while all shops built from October last year till date were being reviewed. He added: “We’re happy that residents are cooperating in this this regard. We are dualising the old Ariaria expressway and several illegally erected stores and buildings are being demolished.”