Okowa Defends Workers’ Sack, Tasks Contractor On Asaba Flood

DELTA State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has defended the suspension of the recruitment exercises which were carried out between January 1, 2014 to May 2015 into the state Civil Service, insisting that the process grossly violated established rules and regulations.

Okowa, who in Asaba spoke at the weekend when he addressed members of the Delta State House of Assembly members on the financial state of the state, said the decision become necessary when it was discovered that the entire exercise was conducted without recourse to laid dawn procedure.

Also, worried by the menace of perennial flooding on Okpanam Road, one of the main streets of the Delta State capital, Asaba, Okowa has urged the contractors handling the drainage project to re-double efforts towards ensuring a speedy completion of the project so as to minimise the effects of erosion and flooding in the town.

Okowa, who spoke yesterday during an inspection of the Okpanam drainage, waterways, and discharge points decried the menace of erosion and flooding in Asaba and environs.

He said: “There is a need to mitigate the effects of flooding in the state capital territory by completion of the drainage project and linking it to the various discharge points and natural waterways.”

The governor said that the decision to suspend the recruitment exercises was ‘painful and unpleasant’ and will also pose a huge financial obligation on the state, adding however that his predecessor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan had faulted the processes that