IMO, APRIL 20, 2018 – Imo State government has announced compulsory acquisition of permanent voters cards (PVCs) as prerequisite for parents /guardians to enroll their children in the state school system.
Similarly, drivers of commercial vehicles, operators of KEKE NAPEP tricycles, market women and traders have been directed to re-validate the voter’s cards for the 2019 elections or risk being banned from operation.
Governor Rochas Okorocha who disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Owerri, stated that the coming general election would be another litmus test for the nation in her March to greatness, even as he predicted a landside victory for President Muhammadu Buhari.
The governor who gave brief account of his stewardship said that the first phase of over 2,000 completed projects including a befitting secretariat for the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the state would soon be commissioned by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo while work had commenced on 570 Kilometre roads in all the 27 LGAs of the state which would be completed in November this year.
The governor said that his urban renewal programme would be pursued with greater vigour, adding that the final clean-up exercise had commenced at the demolished Owerri main market (aka Ekeukwu Owerri) for the traders to move to over 12,000 shops provided for them at the Alaba International Market, Naze.
He said that all shanties within the Owerri Municipal Council must be uprooted to give the city a new look.
This, he said, was in addition to the expansion work currently taking place on both the Douglas and Wetheral roads and the systematic dislodging of criminals from their various hideouts.
“Amakohia erosion has been taken care of and Douglas and Wetheral roads will soon wear a new look and I charge all landlords to repaint their buildings else government will do it for them and they pay for it,” he said.
Okorocha said that a new salary structure for civil servants in the state would soon be out while arrangements had been concluded to clear the backlog of pensions and gratuities owed to pensioners in their various wards.
He lamented that the state has the highest monthly wage bill for pensioners in the South East.
