Posted by The Abia State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, has urged the State government to keep an eye on the actions of security services in the 17 local government areas of the State in order to reduce resident molestation, harassment, intimidation, and extortion.
This council also recommended the management of the State’s security services to support their staff in doing their jobs in a professional manner.
The Abia NUJ published a 9-point statement following its monthly meeting at its State secretariat in Umuahia that included the demand.
According to the communique, which was signed by the Chairman, Comrade Victor Ndukwe, and the Secretary, Adaeze Ralph Igbokwe, Abia citizens were law-abiding and would always appreciate the efforts of security personnel aimed at protecting them and eradicating crime in the State, but they should not be dehumanized.
The NUJ Congress applauded the State government for seeing to it that road blocks along Aba Road and Bende Road in Umuahia, respectively, were taken down, but noted that police officers had resorted to blocking some roads, which upset inattentive drivers and made residents and business owners along that axis go to bed unusually early.
The journalists encouraged the Abia State administration to immediately reveal its intentions for offering palliatives to Abians in order to lessen the damaging consequences of the federal government’s elimination of fuel subsidies.
Additionally, they urged Governor Alex Otti to carry out his commitment to fund a 10 billion naira micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises program on the day of his inauguration because doing so will aid in reducing the high rate of youth unemployment.
Two months after his inauguration, they noted that the Governor had not yet delivered on his earlier commitment to fund 10 billion naira, despite the fact that doing so would have a multiplier effect on the State’s economy.
The governor’s efforts to manage general waste and dispose of trash were praised by the journalists.
They both praised him for the continuous repairs being made to several dangerous routes in important State cities, but they also expressed concern about the run-down circumstances of Umuahia’s Isi Gate neighborhood.
They praised the State government’s plans to pay retired judges’ gratuities and pensions that were overdue and encouraged it to expedite the verification processes for pensioners in the State so that they could collect their pensions without delay.
The statement thanked Otti for paying the government officials’ salaries in July on time and for making good on inherited April salary arrears. It then called for the payment of outstanding worker salaries by December 2023, as Otti had originally committed.