The Cross River State governor, Ben Ayade Tuesday raised the alarm over what he described as stealing of government assets in the twilight of his administration.
The state chief executive raised the alarm while swearing in Udiba Udiba as the state’s commissioner for Assets Management and Martins Osibe as a commissioner in the Cross River Civil Service commission at the executive chambers of the governor’s office Calabar.
The state governor used the opportunity to disbanded the state’s Scraps Metal Regulatory Agency, accusing the agency of engaging in unwholesome activities.
While giving an insight of what is required of by the newly sworn in commissioner, Ayade said, “The office of the commissioner for Assets Management, has the responsibility to document every single asset that belongs to this state.
“Cross River has a very sad story regarding assets remittances. Our assets have often been taken away because we do not have inventory of them.
“In this time and age, people still see government assets as nobody’s assets.
“As government is winding down, they convert official cars and change number plates and hide the cars from government.
“Some people move from one ministry to the other taking government assets. They disappear with assets and take them away.”
“Government vehicles are disappearing. If a vehicle has a small dent and it is sent to mechanic workshop, they will disappear from there.
Government will buy official vehicles that are functional and somebody will seize them and say it is scrap.
“We must have an asset register for the state, indicating that if you go to Obudu for instance, this particular building belongs to ministry of Agriculture, this particular land belongs to the state and it is a property of the Cross River State government,”
