Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Umo Eno, has expressed disappointment with overzealous politicians of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fold, whom he accused of trying to sabotage his scorecard ahead of his administration’s one year anniversary on May 29.
Addressing hordes of worshippers who thronged the Latter House Chapel of the Government House for the monthly prayer meeting (April edition) at the weekend, the governor regretted that even palliatives meant to cushion the excruciating impacts of the hard times on senior citizens have been hijacked by the ruling party politicians entrusted for the disbursement.
He decried such devious act by some people to hijack and thwart government’s effort at reaching out to the elderly citizens through the ARISE Elders Initiative (AEI), warning that “it was not meant for only PDP members but all Akwa Ibom people; not for an individual stakeholder to select all beneficiaries.’’
Eno explained that “every month, each local government gives us at least 15 elderly people so that we can help them with their medications. A lot of these people die because medical attention does not get to them. We give them N50,000 each a month. It is our ARISE initiative for the elderly, but we have received complaints that people have hijacked the process.
“Please, allow the process to run. One person cannot bring 15 people. What is wrong with a local government chairman going to the paramount ruler, sit with him and make the selection? It is not supposed to be a PDP thing. Government programmes are not meant for PDP members alone, it is meant for everybody. It should benefit everyone.
“So please, select old men and women across the wards, let them come and get the money. Recreational activities are also organised during the meeting so that they can go home with joy in their hearts. So please, I ask that the coordinators should bring people together and not just deal with only one family. We mean well for our people and they should benefit from these programmes.”
Besides, as the first anniversary of his administration on May 29 draws closer, the governor has expressed worries concerning his achievements, saying he has been inundated with queries by the people.
“A lot of people are asking us, what is your legacy project? For me, our legacy project is rural development. Everybody has his own style. The current reality demands that we do soft infrastructure, I call them soft infrastructure because you can do those hard ones and before people will use them, they are dead.
“That is not to say that we won’t do what we wanted to do. As we step into the second year, we are stepping up on what we wanted to do in line with our ARISE Agenda,” he added.
On the pockets of insecurity – kidnapping, armed robbery, ritual killings, cyber frauds and other violent crimes, the governor advised the citizenry to take their security seriously, noting that “recent happenings have shown that from everyone kidnapped in the state, 20 percent is by chance and 80 percent is information from people around the victims.”
He, therefore, urged everyone to minimise the publication of personal information on the social media as such constitutes security risk.
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