Rivers State Commissioner for Housing, Barr. Emma Okah (left), with the Zonal Director, NTA, Port Harcourt, Mr. Sunday Ibrahim Sawntong (middle), welcoming the Senior Special Assistant, Administration to the Deputy Governor, Barr. Gilbert Nria to NTA Christmas Carol of Nine Lessons in Port Harcourt, recently.

The Delta State House of As
sembly has called for strengthening of the state government-owned media organisations, to enable them to be at par with private media organisations.
The Chairman, House Committee on Information, Mr Tim Owhefere, made the call during the 2016 budget defence meeting with officials of the state Ministry of Information in Asaba.
Owhefere, who is also the Majority Leader of the House, said that information was key to the growth of the state and the country at large.
He said that the State Broadcasting Service in Asaba and Warri, as well as the Pointer Newspapers, were established for effective information dissemination in the state.
The lawmaker said it was disturbing that the signals of the two broadcast stations could not be received in some parts of the state.
He said that the Pointer Newspapers was also unable to compete with other national newspapers.
Owhefere, while acknowledging the numerous challenges faced by the state government-owned media organisations, said that the committee would assist the ministry in its effort to reposition them.
He urged the government-owned media stations to live up to expectations in propagating government policies and programmes to the grassroots.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Information, Mr Patrick Ukah, said the ministry under his watch was working toward repositioning and rebranding government-owned media organisations to meet modern-day realities.
Ukah said that the two broadcasting stations were not as bad as they were being painted in some areas.
“My ministry is working tirelessly to ensure that DBS Asaba and Warri come on stream with good content and reception,’’ he said.
According to the commissioner, plans are on to link DBS Asaba and Warri on a three-hour daily network, but both stations must be stable before it can be achieved.
Ukah also highlighted efforts toward strengthening operations in the Pointer Newspaper in terms of content, circulation and marketing.
He said that training and retraining of staff in the ministry and the parastatals would be prioritised in the 2016 fiscal year.
The commissioner said with adequate funding, the goals and objectives of the state government in the information sector would be realised.