Lawmakers Decry Infrastructural Decay In MoI

The Cross River State House of Assembly, has decried the poor state of infrastructure in the state’s Ministry of Information and some of her parastatals, occasioned by long years of neglect by previous administrations.
The Chairman, House of Assembly Committee on Information and Communication Technology, Hon. Nelson Ofem, stated this in Calabar while leading other members of the committee on inspection of the state of infrastructure in the ministry and her parastatals in readiness for the enormous task of adequately publicising the entire state.
The committee members, who were conducted round the various offices; Library and the News Room in the ministry’s headquarters complex by the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Freedom Ejom, bemoaned the deplorable state of the buildings, which he pointed out, had not witnessed any form of renovation since there were built over three decades ago.
Ofem, who represents Yakurr 1 State Constituency in the Assembly, stated that the situation was unbefitting as the image-maker of government, adding that Cross River State had always blazed the trail in many aspects of development in the country, not only as the tourism hub and nerve centre but as the preferred warmest destination for business and leisure in Africa.
The lawmaker, who was accompanied on the tour by the Vice Chairman, Hon. Efa Esua of Calabar Municipality State Constituency in the Assembly, assured the permanent secretary of the full support of the House of Assembly in drawing the attention of the state Governor, Prof. Benedict Ayade, to the deplorable state of infrastructure in the ministry, stressing that his committee would immediately report to the Speaker, Rt. Hon John Gaul-Lebo for further necessary action.
The Information and Communication Technology Committee chairman berated those who were appointed to superintend over the Cross River State Newspaper Corporation but decided to sell the corporation’s houses in the state Housing Estate to themselves, describing their action as unacceptable and unethical, and assured that the House of Assembly was already on top of the issue to reverse the sale of all other government houses wrongly sold to people by the last administration.
The Assemblymen lauded the Imoke-led administration for uplifting the status of the Cross River Broadcasting Corporation (CRBC), through massive renovation of its buildings and provision of modern equipment, emphasising that more efforts would be put in the new dispensation to ensure that the Radio/Television services of the corporation were received across the length and breadth of the state in order to attract more revenue.