Gov Otu orders Ayade’s appointees to vacate buildings, return vehicles

By Musa Baba Adamu Governor

Bassey Otu of Cross River State has ordered that further auctioning of government properties in any part of the state should halt immediately.

The governor has also directed that past government officials still in possession of official vehicles and other properties should return them immediately.

In a statement signed by Dr. Innocent Eteng, the

Permanent Secretary in the General Administration Office of the Secretary to the State Government, the governor also dissolved all governing boards of parastatals, commissions, and agencies other than statutory boards.

He directed that all local government council chairmen, upon expiration of their tenure, hand over to their respective Heads of Local Government Administration (HOLGAS) or Directors-General and

Administration (DGSAS) of their local governments.

Otu has also ordered that all government properties, including buildings hitherto occupied by political appointees, be vacated with immediate effect, instructing such affected appointees to hand over to their permanent secretaries or most senior directors.

The statement said: “Political appointees and other public officers still keeping government vehicles are to return them forthwith to the Transport Officer, Office of the Governor. All auctioning of assets are hereby suspended and will be revisited in due course.”

The governor frowned at the highhandedness and harshness of tax and revenue agents and dissolved their committees immediately.

Otu said further allocations of lands and other related matters should be suspended until further notice.

CNPP urges caution in petrol subsidy removal, says APC worsening suffering

By Christiana Ekpa

Conference Of Nigeria

Parties (CNPP) has urged the Federal Government to exercise caution in implementation of the its petrol subsidy removal, saying that the policy is worsening the suffering of the masses.

In a statement signed by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Comrade James Ezema, the CNPP noted that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has continued its “anti-people agenda under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration thereby worsening the suffering of the Nigerian masses.”

According the CNPP, “contrary to President’s recent tweet after his “subsidy is gone” inaugural declaration, which created the impression that the implementation of subsidy removal will commence at the end of June, the policy has taken immediate effect.

“The CNPP is therefore disturbed that without any cushioning scheme to mitigate the negative impact of the policy on the masses, the Federal Government has gone ahead to increase pump price of petrol nationwide.

“As desirable as subsidy removal on petrol may be, a government that has the masses at heart would have first put in place intervention programmes to ensure that Nigerians do not continue to suffer unduly.

“For instance, a total rehabilitation of the nation’s refineries or construction of new ones and introduction of subsidised mass transportation schemes as well as improvement on the nation’s railway system are just a few of such intervention schemes that should be in place before the total deregulation of the downstream sector of the Nigerian petroleum industry.

“We therefore call on

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reconsider the timing of his full implementation of the subsidy removal policy to first put in place measures that would reduce the burden of the policy on already impoverished masses of the country.

“With the unprecedented poverty and job losses in the last eight years of the previous APC administration, it may be catastrophic to increase the suffering of the masses without commensurate measures to enhance the welfare of the ordinary citizens”, the CNPP warned.