Imo indigenes and residents alike are in high spirit as news of the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to the State to commission more signature projects built by Governor Hope Uzodimma rents the air.
The Executive Council of Imo State confirmed, after its weekly meeting, that President Buhari will on Tuesday September 13, 2022 pay a one day visit to Imo to commission the two signature road projects of the 3-R administration as well as the newly reconstructed Imo State House of Assembly Complex.
Rising from the meeting, Wednesday, presided over by Governor Uzodimma, the Hon Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Mbadiwe Emelumba who confirmed Mr. President’s second visit to Imo said Imo people residing at all the nooks and crannies of Imo State cannot wait to receive their beloved President.
The two critical road projects slated for Mr. President’s commissioning are the 36 kilometre dualized Owerri/Orlu road and the first phase of the dualised 53 kilometre Owerri/Okigwe Road.
Emelumba said that “the two roads qualify as one the best roads in Nigeria and even anywhere in the world” and that “the two roads have made a difference in the economic development and improvement of the State cutting across over seven Local Governments.”
Supported at the briefing by the Hon. Commissioners for Works, Barr. Ralph Nwosu; Housing, Lady Love Ineh; the Chief Political Adviser and Head Political Bureau, Barr. Enyinna Onuegbu and the Chief Press Secretary/Media Adviser to the Governor, Oguwike Nwachuku, Emelumba explained that “Mr. President will also commission the rebuilt Imo State House of Assembly Complex.”
Emelumba said: “The Assembly Complex has been re-equipped and re-furbished with state of the art equipment/gadgets and furniture that have brought it to a world class standard and in fact, the best in Nigeria today.”
In another development, the Commissioner informed that the Executive Council has discovered to her chagrin that a new fraud has quietly crept back into the automation process in the public service of the State whereby personnel who are either retired or dead and are no longer working, still get payrolled for salaries every month.
To forestall the fraud, the Exco has directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to immediately carry out staff audit to ascertain the appropriate people that are supposed to receive salaries and ensure all leakages are plugged.
In addition, the Exco directed that henceforth the payroll of Civil Servants for salaries and emoluments must now be sent to MDAs for verification and confirmation before they are paid.
Confirming the readiness of the two dualized roads for commissioning by Mr. President, the Hon. Commissioner for Works, Barr. Ralph Nwosu explained: “The roads are ready. The states of the road infrastructure are all in place and the State is good to go.”
At the commencement of the day’s Executive Council Meeting Governor Uzodimma performed the swearing-in ceremony of a Commissioner designate, Chief Cosmas Nwabueze Maduba who was unavoidably absent on August 17, 2022, the day his colleagues were sworn-in.