Abia State Governor Dr Alex Otti has commended the Online Media Practitioners Association of Nigeria (OMPAN) Abia State for the efforts in touring and inspecting on-going and completed projects in the State aimed at identifying the progress the government has made in its one year in office.
He assured that government will continue to partner with the media and must at all times pay attention to their observations so as to know areas that need improvements.
Governor Otti who was represented by his Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma at an interactive session with OMPAN at Umuahia North LGA multi-purpose Hall, lauded the online media practitioners for thinking outside the box, adding that what they have done is geared towards bringing Abia State to the limelight.
Dr Otti who described media as critical stakeholders in governance especially in democracy, said government is excited that OMPAN stepped out to go and inspect projects independently to confirm as well as authenticate what government claims to have done.
“I want to commend you for thinking outside the box and embarking on such independent projects inspection geared towards identifying the progress the government has recorded and bringing Abia State to limelight.
According to the Governor, “on assumption of office his administration declared state of emergency in five key areas; road infrastructure, education, health, waste management and security”.
He disclosed that government appointed experts and professionals as key officers in charge of the health sector, actions taken to completely overhaul the sector as well as to turn the health sector around.
Governor Otti revealed that government plans to renovate all the General hospitals in the State, adding that the health sector received the second highest allocation in 2024 budget which he said was an intentional move by government to ensure that the health sector is given a facelift.
He informed that there is massive improvement in the area of waste management considering where the government started because on assumption of office, someone in charge of task force was appointed and charged to clear the huge mountain of refuse on the streets of Aba and Umuahia.
He said government has not issued any demand notice for refuse waste since assumption of office rather,” What we have done now is to enumerate all the households in the State, especially in Aba and Umuahia, reviewed what we did backed it by law because what we want to do is house to house collection of refuse.”
Speaking further the media adviser explained that,” what we are doing in the area of infrastructure is being very intentional. We are doing it as a way of taking our State where it should be and we are doing a whole lot to ensure that we rebuild our State.”
On security he explained that government established the joint security Team named ‘Operation Crush’, mobilized them and provided the required security equipment which enabled them to swing into action, noting that a place like Lokpanta criminals no longer have control of the area because government has sanitized the place.
Explaining the efforts of government in the education sector, he revealed that an approval was given for the construction of 10 primary and three secondary schools in each of the local government, pointing out that the education sector was allocated 20 percent of 2024 budget.
He said most of the public schools in the State are in a state of decay which led to the upsurge in private school, maintaining that government wants to invest massively in public schools to rebuild them and make sure Public schools are more patronize in Abia.
Earlier in his speech, the Chairman of OMPAN Chief Promise Uzoma Okoro said the association toured most of the road projects both on going and completed in Abia South, Central and North to verify the claims by government and give objective reportage on their findings.
He stressed that OMPAN is not a stooge of government in power nor tools of the opposition, rather as a watchdog its main objective is to investigate, report and educate people, while clarifying that the movement was not sponsored by government as being rumoured in some quarters.
Chief Okoro expressed appreciation to all members of OMPAN who despite their tight schedules participated in the projects tour.
