UMUAHIA- A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain in Abia, Charles Ogbonnaya, has lauded Gov. Alex Otti for setting up a judicial panel of inquiry to recover government property and funds from the immediate past administration.
He gave the commendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Umuahia on Tuesday.
Ogbonnaya, a pioneer PDP member in the state and former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, described the move by the governor as a welcome development.
“I wonder why some people should criticise Otti rather than commending him for making such a move,” he said.
The PDP chieftain alleged that offices of some establishments, which had been in existence since the defunct Eastern region, had been allocated to some individuals without due process.
“As commissioner for local government and chieftaincy affairs, we purchased earth moving equipment for the 17 council areas for grading of rural roads, but where are they now?” he queried.
Ogbonnaya also condemned what he called the recent allocation of the prestigious Government College, Umuahia and other government property to some individuals.
He expressed his readiness to assist the state government in its efforts at recovering public property from those who illegally acquired them.
“I am a PDP man; I don’t belong to Labour Party; we are talking about mismanagement of public property by some individuals; we want to identify them and I don’t see anything wrong with that,” he said.
Ogbonnaya urged the people of the state to assist the panel in its assignment, saying that the property belonged to everyone.
On the purported plan by the state government to sack workers, he advised the governor to rather look out for ways of fishing out ghost workers in the civil service.
He said that he had conducted an investigation as a commissioner and discovered that there were some ghost workers among the state’s workforce.
NAN reports that a judge of the State High Court in Umuahia, Justice Florence Duruoha-Igwe, was named the chairperson of the panel of inquiry. (NAN)
