Udenwa orders councils to execute N10m projects monthly
From Charles Ogugbuaja, Owerri
TO facilitate development at the grassroots in Imo State, all the local council chiefs have been directed by the state government to execute projects worth N10 million monthly.
The directive, according to the state Chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Chief Chukwudi Mayor Eze, came from Governor Achike Udenwa.
Eze disclosed to journalists yesterday that the governor told them at a meeting that it was no longer going to be business as usual in the councils.
The chairman said that the councils would comply with the governor's order.
He said: "We saw reasons with the governor and resolved to work harder. It is our readiness to work that led to the N10 million compulsory project for each of the 27 local councils to execute monthly.
Eze said a package for the construction of three kilometres of roads linking one council to the other had been arranged, adding that about 81 kilometres of roads would be constructed yearly.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Rita Akpan, has said the Federal Government would build skill acquisition centres in each state to empower and rehabilitate victims of child-trafficking. She urged the people to co-operate with the government to check child-trafficking and child-labour.
Akpan, who was on a one-day official sensitisation trip to the state, told women and some senior government officials in Owerri that the government was committed to bringing child-trafficking under control.
The minister also appealed to members of the Imo State House of Assembly to expedite action on the passage of the Child Rights Act into law.
Her words: "The purpose of my trip to Imo State is, therefore, to solicit your help in putting a stop to human-trafficking and child-labour in the state.
"I want to seize this opportunity to appeal to the governor, his wife and the Assembly to pass Child Rights Acts into law in Imo State so that government can prosecute child traffic offenders".
She said that President Olusegun Obasanjo had evolved various policies to end unemployment, poverty, youth restiveness and wanton destruction of government property and innocent Nigerians by hoodlums.
The minister said that as a signatory to United Nations (UN) convention on the Rights of the Child and African Union (AU) Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the government would ensure the protection of the rights of children.
At the event yesterday, Udenwa advocated for sound upbringing of children to guarantee the future of the nation.
He urged the minister to use her ministry to stem child-trafficking, pledging that the state government will join in the crusade.
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