Cross River State governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, yesterday suspended
\nindefinitely, the Commissioner for Water Resources, Ntufam Gabe Odu Ojie,
\nand the Managing Director of Water Board Limited, Dr. Oju Igile for
\nreporting to work late.<\/p>\n
The governor announced their suspension during his routine but unscheduled
\ntour of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to ensure that civil
\nand public servants comply strictly with basic work ethics.<\/p>\n
Speaking to news men at the premises of the Ministry in Calabar, Ayade
\nsaid it was an act of indiscipline for appointees not to be at their duty
\npost before 9.00am, maintaining that the suspension would serve as
\ndeterrent to other government employees, as well as appointees.<\/p>\n
His words: \u201cThis is about 9 o\u2019clock in the morning and the Commissioner
\nfor Water Resources is not at his duty post. The Managing Director of
\nCross River State Water Board is not in the office. I cannot understand
\nwhy he is not in the office. I therefore, with immediate effect, announce
\nhis suspension. We wll appoint somebody to take over this office with
\nimmediate effect. Any single commissioner I find in this circumstance will
\nleave.\u201d<\/p>\n
After making the pronouncement, Governor Ayade also supervised a roll call
\nof staff who signed the time book as of the time of his visit to check
\ntruancy.<\/p>\n
Accordingly, the governor also directed that all erring staff be
\ndisciplined in line with the civil service rules.<\/p>\n
On the irregular water supply experienced by residents in the metropolis
\nin recent past, Ayade who averred that part of the reason he embarked on
\nthe visit was because of concerns raised about irregular water supply to
\nthe citizenry, frowned on the action of the Port Harcourt Electricity
\nDistribution Company (PHED) for disconnecting power supply to the water
\nboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter paying N14 million billing charge, there\u2019s no reason, given the
\ncircumstances of the time, that power should be disconnected from Cross
\nRiver State Water Board. We find this totally unacceptable. We believe
\nthat we have invested enough in PHED and we expect that they show us
\nunderstanding,\u201d he queried.<\/p>\n
Governor Ayade subsequently called on the Federal Government to compel the
\ndistribution company to be accountable to the state government in view of
\nits investment through the provision of transformers to aid their
\nbusiness.<\/p>\n
He assured the citizenry that normalcy will soon return in the supply of
\nwater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cross River State governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, yesterday suspended indefinitely, the Commissioner for Water Resources, Ntufam Gabe Odu Ojie, and the Managing Director of Water Board Limited, Dr. Oju Igile…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n