By: Vitalis Ugoh Calabar
Cross River State Commissioner for information and Orientation, Mr Eric Iso Anderson, has said that the state is yet to receive the N45 Billion Naira compensation approved by the presidency, two years after#EndSars.
This amount was reviewed by the Senate as compensation funds to cushion the effects of #Endsars in the state.
The commissioner disclosed this in a remark during the bi-monthly Ministerial Press Briefing in his office.
In his opening remarks, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Eric Iso Anderson stated that he is on a mission to reawaken the information machinery to bring citizens and residents of the State up to speed on the ‘unprecedented’ strides of the present administration.
“The good thing is that I was the chairman for the committee for #Endsars recovery and from my assessment about 157 properties were destroyed, state government properties, federal government properties and private individuals.”
“I was able to appear before the Senate house on two occasions and we told them that we have 157 properties destroyed during #Endsars and we are asking that you support us to go fix them up at the tune of N73bn, they did a recommendation to presidency and review it and asked presidency to pay N45bn to Cross River State which has not been paid till date.”
He appealed to the presidency to release the fund to assist the state in fixing those properties that were destroyed.
The ministerial briefing which beams light on two ministries on the first day, commenced with Ministry of Rural Transformation and Ministry of Quality Education to reel their respective scorecards to the media to enhance information on the Ayade-led administration performance.
Briefing the press on the deliverables of his Ministry, the Commissisioner for Rural Transformation, Mr. Edem Effiom Okokon informed that his Ministry’s mandate is to turn rural communities to semi-urban towns, referencing Francois Perroux’s Growth Pole Theory as a standpoint.
The Rural Transformation Commissioner which noted that his ministry was more like an intervention agency further stated that government intervention through his Ministry began with the Ipong area of Obudu, where infrastructure and other social amenities were provided to the four communities that make up Ipong.
He revealed that Obudu, Obanliku and Ikom Local Government Areas have an average of about two boreholes per ward, taking the financial expenditure to the tune of 11.3 million naira. He also said similar interventions are going on in Yala and Bekwarra Areas simultaneously.
Okokon however lamented the wanton destruction of the 1.2 billion-rated 52-unit Housing Estate in Bakassi by the ill-conceived EndSars mayhem, blaming the people of the southern senatorial district of not taking ownership of government property in their areas.
Similarly, Commissioner for Quality Education in the state, Dr Godwin Amanke presented his ministry’s scorecard highlighting the Teachers Continuous Training Institute in Biase which is completed and running with hostels for teachers and facilitators, the ministry’s printing press and several others primary and secondary school intervention through SUBEB.
The educations’ commissioner further disclosed that his ministry is embarking on digitalizing the education system in the state, revealing that consultants are working on digitally getting the exact data of pupils, students, teachers and head teachers of different schools in the entire State.
