The Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma, has challenged monarchs in Imo State to do everything within their behest to safeguard their domain and protect their subjects against any form of criminality.
Governor Uzodimma at a meeting with traditional rulers from the 27 local government areas of Imo State at the weekend, reminded them of their responsibility to protect their communities and their subjects as “not only custodians of cultures and tradition but as well, chief security officers of their various communities”.
The meeting with the traditional rulers was held at the Eze Imo Palace at Mbari Owerri.
He commended the monarchs for their contributions so far towards peace, security and development in Imo State and regretted that in the process of their efforts for a better Imo society they have suffered humiliations and even deaths.
He promised that government will continue to work with them in the task ahead “so that together the menace and distractions of bandits and unknown gunmen will be a thing of the past”.
The governor reminded them that the security challenge in Imo State is not a child’s play though not peculiar to the state alone. “It affects almost all the states of the federation and as such cannot be treated with kids cloves”.
The governor reiterated commitment to serve the people and to repair all the sectors that were rotten and damaged by past administrations in the areas of politics, civil service, education, health, roads, water supply among others.
He informed the monarchs that the rot in Imo State is nauseating, citing example of how government has been paying the salary to 6,500 secondary school teachers’ salaries every month whereas in the bio-data exercise carried out on July 7, 2022 government was only able to record 3,000 secondary school teachers.
He bemoaned that the situation is regrettable “where people are still fraudulent and collecting salary that does not belong to them”.
Governor Uzodimma reminded the traditional rulers that his administration has recently awarded contracts of five kilometers per local government and that two kilometers of the 5km has been given out to contractors with advanced payments made.
To realise the project, the governor urged the traditional rulers to supervise and monitor the construction of the roads in their areas and at the same time, confirm to government on their completion before final payments are made to the contractors.
He also said the monarchs will be held responsible if they go ahead to approve payments when jobs are shabbily done, not completed or done at all.
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