A retired Permanent Secretary, Chief F.I. Agba, has faulted the directive issued by the Governor of Imo State that his former appointees, including Commissioner, Special Adviser among others should return government properties in their custody to the Managing Director of the Imo State Oil Producing Communities Development Commission ISOPADEC, Hon Charles Orie.
Agba, who stated this in an exclusive interview with Nigeria Watchdog Newspaper, said, it is wrong for the Governor to give such directive, adding that under normal circumstances the right thing to do is for government to direct the affected appointees to hand over such properties to the Permanent Secretaries of their respective ministries.
Continuing, Agba said, “what if the individual who such properties are handed to runs away with them. Who will be held responsible, when the individual in question is not a career civil servant”.
Recall, that Agba, a human rights activist and former Chairman, Association of Retired Permanent Secretaries in Imo State, had in a similar manner condemned in unmistakable terms, the appointment of one Terrence Onyejiaku, who is said to be Governor Hope Uzodinma’s kinsman, as the person responsible for the payment of salaries of civil servants in Imo State. Hence, there have been all kinds of discrepancies.
He wondered why Uzodinma’s advisers who should weigh the pros and cons of the Governor’s actions and statements always make him to take wrong decision that not only dent the image of his administration but also ridicule the state and her people.
Reacting to the level of hardship the country, Agba blamed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu whose faulty programs and policies, he said have ruined the country’s economy and subjected the citizens to unprecedented level of hunger, lack, deprivation, agony and frustration.
He noted that when President Tinubu assumed office and removed the petroleum subsidy without making necessary arrangement for its effects, he thought that things will be better, but today, Nigeria will soon become worse than Colombia, Somalia and other countries whose people are living in abject poverty.
Chief Agba, regretted that after removing fuel subsidy, the only measure the Tinubu administration thought of as palliative was to distribute bags of rice to the people through the federal lawmakers, who allegedly sold the rice that was meant for their constituents. “This ill-conceived and poorly implemented idea complicated issues because it increased rice consumption without commensurately increasing its production, thereby making rice very expensive”.
