On Monday 15th of August, 2016, the Cross River State governor, Professor Senator Ben Ayade, issued a proceedings on the indefinite suspension from the office of Gabe Odu Oji, Commissoner for Water Resources and Igile Oju Igile, Managing Director, MD, Cross River State Water Board Limited, which took effect immediately.
According to reports, the governor on that day paid a surprised visit to the Water Board premises at 9:00am when he discovered the absent of the Commissioner and MD who were yet to resume work, an hour they should have been on seat. With that regard, Governor Ayade whom policy forbids lateness percieved unseriousness of the two, and asked for their immediate suspensions till further notice.
Speaking to newsmen, Mr. Christian Ita, SA to the Governor on Media and Chief Press Secretary confirmed the suspensions.
Speaking to news men at the premises of the Ministry in Calabar, Ayade said it was an act of indiscipline for appointees not to be at their duty post before 9.00am, maintaining that the suspension would serve as deterrent to other government employees, as well as appointees.
His words: “This is about 9 o’clock in the morning and the Commissioner for Water Resources is not at his duty post. The Managing Director of Cross River State Water Board is not in the office. I cannot understand why he is not in the office. I therefore, with immediate effect, announce his suspension. We wll appoint somebody to take over this office with immediate effect. Any single commissioner I find in this circumstance will leave.”
After making the pronouncement, Governor Ayade also supervised a roll call of staff who signed the time book as of the time of his visit to check truancy.
Accordingly, the governor also directed that all erring staff be disciplined in line with the civil service rules.
On the irregular water supply experienced by residents in the metropolis in recent past, Ayade who averred that part of the reason he embarked on the visit was because of concerns raised about irregular water supply to the citizenry, frowned on the action of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) for disconnecting power supply to the water board.
“After paying N14 million billing charge, there’s no reason, given the circumstances of the time, that power should be disconnected from Cross River State Water Board. We find this totally unacceptable. We believe that we have invested enough in PHED and we expect that they show us understanding,” he queried.
Governor Ayade subsequently called on the Federal Government to compel the distribution company to be accountable to the state government in view of its investment through the provision of transformers to aid their business.
He assured the citizenry that normalcy will soon return in the supply of water.
