Governor Nwifuru suspends two commissioners, permanent secretaries

The Ebonyi State Governor Francis Nwifuru has suspended indefinitely the Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Francis Ori, and equally placed Commissioner for Health, Moses Ekuma on three months suspension.

Penpushing reports that Commissioner for Information, Jude Okpor made this known in a statement explaining that they were suspended for alleged misconduct and dereliction of duties, as approved by the State Executive Council after a meeting held at the New Government House Abakaliki on Monday.

The other officials suspended for three months include the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Executive Secretaries of the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, and the Ebonyi State Health Insurance Agency.

“Following cases of gross misconduct and dereliction of duties by some government officials and matters related thereto, the Chairman of Council directed the indefinite suspension of the Honourable Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development and three months suspension of the Honourable Commissioner for Health respectively, Okpor said.

“In view of the development, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Primary Health was directed to take charge of the ministry in the absence of the suspended Commissioner’, the statement emphasised.

Penpushing further reports that Okpor in the statement said the Governor directed the suspended government officials to hand over all government properties, including vehicles, to the Secretary to the Government.

The statement while accusing the officials of dereliction of duty and misconduct, the health officials are believed to have been suspended following the weekend incident in which some health ministry officials were caught carting away health records.

Penpushing also reports that it is recalled that the Governor intercepted the officials inside the Ministry’s premises while they were loading the health records into a van, and on investigation, it was discovered that the officials had struck a deal with someone to buy the documents.

The officials, the buyer, the driver and about seven others involved as at the time of filling this report have been handed over to the police for further investigation and possible prosecution, while the statement added that the State Executive Council has also begun ministerial debates and defence for the MDAs, marking the commencement of the processes preceding the official presentation of the 2025 budget proposal to the Ebonyi House of Assembly for statutory legislative consideration and approval.

Penpushing reports that the Information Commissioner stated that the Council in the same vein approved the Citizen’s budget participatory engagement, which will take place on Wednesday, November 27, 2024, at the Ecumenical Centre, Abakaliki, by 10 a.m.

The Commissioner added that the state government has concluded plans for the Ebonyi State Broadcasting Corporation (EBBC) to become a public liability company, explaining that with the development, staff of the establishments who no longer fit into the new administrative and the independent configuration of the outfits would be posted to other MDAs where their services are needed.

“After an exhaustive deliberation on the administrative status of the State-owned Radio and Television Stations, the EBBC, the Council approved the ceding off of the Corporation to become an independent outfit’, he wrote.

“This is aimed at raising the productivity level of the corporation as well as boosting accruable economic returns to the State Government. The same applies to the Ebonyi State Newspapers and Publishing Corporation, Nigerian Patriot’,Okpor added.

‘EXCO noted that this reform is not in any way tilting towards sacking any member of staff of the establishments but sees this as a move to re-jig the outfits towards making them fully independent, business-oriented and self-reliant,” he stated.

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