Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade, has decried the stealing of government assets in the twilight of his administration.
The governor, who spoke, on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, at the state executive chamber of the Governor’s Office, Calabar, while swearing in Udiba Udiba as the state’s Commissioner for Assets Management, as well as Martins Osibe as a Commissioner in the state Civil Service Commission, vowed to deal with culprits.
Ayade also used the occasion to disband the state’s Scraps Metal Regulatory Agency, accusing it of unwholesome activities.
The office of the Commissioner for Assets Management, according to the governor, has the responsibility to document every single asset that belongs to the state. He said: “Cross River has a very sad story regarding assets remittances. Our assets have often been taken away, because we do not have inventory of them.
“In this time and age, people still see government assets as nobody’s assets. As government is winding down, they convert official cars, change number plates and hide the cars from government.”
“Some people move from one ministry to the other taking government assets. They disappear with them.
“Government vehicles are disappearing. If a vehicle has a small dentand it is sent to mechanic workshop, they will disappear from there. Government will buy official vehicles that are functional and somebody will seize them and say it is scrap.
“We must have an asset register for the state, indicating that if you go to Obudu, for instance, this particular building belongs to Ministry of Agriculture, that particular land belongs to the state and it is a property of the state government.”He berated the disbanded Scrap Metal Agency for illegally pilfering government assets, including dumpsters and labelling them scraps.
He added: “I hear Scrap Metal Regulatory Agency is going around causing problems and seizing everything, saying they are scraps.
“Let me use this responsibility to announce that the Scrap Metal Regulatory Agency is, hereby, scrapped. The agency will no longer exist, because it will now come under Asset Management Ministry.”
Source: Guardian
