Tejiri Ebikeme/Francis Sadhere

The Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan has explained why he suspended the State Civil Service Commission recruitment exercise..

While briefing newsmen in Unity Hall, Asabal, today, Governor Uduaghan said he had to suspend the State Civil Service Recruitment exercise due to allegation that applicants were being asked to pay for job slots.

The Governor said; “I decided to suspend the Civil Service Commission recruitment as a result of allegation that applicants were asked to pay for job slots.  Even before the exercise was to start, applicants were already crying out that they were being asked to cough out money for job slots.

“People were being asked to pay as much as N300,000 for the exercise; where do you think applicants will get such amount of money and such things will only promote corruption and so I decided to suspend the exercise. But the new Head of Service is looking into the matter already so that it can be done without applicants being asked to pay a kobo,” the Governor said in Asaba.

On housing for Deltans, the Governor acknowledged that his administration had not done much in the area, but assured that something positive will be done before the end of his administration.

“I know that we have not done much in that area.  We had arrangements with some private developers before;  we gave them Certificates of Occupancy,  but they used them to get money from the banks and never used the money for the same purpose.  But the Commissioner for Housing is doing something at the moment to address the housing needs of Deltans.

Speaking on ongoing projects his administration had embarked upon, Governor Uduaghan assured Deltans that his administration will try and complete most of them, adding that it was doing everything possible to ensure that he finishes strong.

On construction of rural roads, the governor said that his administration had constructed a lot of rural roads in the state, explaining that the state does not have to the money to construct all roads in the state.

Speaking on Warri clean-up exercise, the state governor said that the state was putting environmental marshals in place and that very soon they will be deployed around the cities to check illegal dumping of refuse.

He appealed to the citizens of Delta state to change their attitudes towards environmental sanitation, saying that that was the only way the government would be able to sustain their drive for a cleaner state.

He said; “Our attitude towards environmental sanitation is very poor. Why will a person in his right senses go and be trading on top of a drainage? Why will somebody go and shed his wares on top of the walkway? Those structures that are being demolished are illegal structures so why will pay compensation for something that is already illegal. For those of you who are saying that we did not give the people enough notice before we started demolition, it may interest you to know that we gave these people up to two years notice before we started demolition.”