Joseph Odok|28 April 2016|6:20am
The Ayade's government has visited Cross River States with increasing filth. The present Commissioner of Environment, Mike Eraye, seems not interested in salvaging the situation but farther seeking to control all projects in a bid to make more money while neglecting the higher interest of sanitizing the environment.
In a bid to curry the governor to rescind the contract of employment with CUDA, the Commissioner for Environment had blackmailed CUDA with more than 100 photo shots of dirty bins. Truth be told, the Ayade's government has not adequately funded CUDA for effective evacuation of waste. It is worthy of note that CUDA had been the sole agency that kept Calabar clean due to the managerial skills of the Duke and partial commitment of the Liyel Imoke administration.
Today, waste evacuation is divided with the Commissioner of Environment taking care of the Calabar Municipality while CUDA takes care of the Calabar South area. The Commissioner concentrates in clearing the areas around the vicinity of the governor while the rest of areas remain dirty. Some photo shots confirms my findings.
Frustrated in his efforts of blackmail, the Commissioner has gone into full war with some CUDA staff. There is a report concerning the unwholesome activities and witch hunting of the Commissioner of Environment towards the Calabar Urban Development Authority through the Waste Management Agency. Though the Commissioner is spear heading Waste Management Agency, the Calabar Urban Development Authority is saddled with the responsibility of keeping Calabar metropolis clean and green, the commissioner, is doing everything possible to render the other agency incompetent by denying it working apparatus because he is a member of the State EXCO. He is in charge of Calabar Municipality while CUDA is for Calabar South. He assigned both solo and skip bins to Calabar Municipality without any to Calabar South. The irony is that every little waste on floor will show whereas those in a bin will not. The Commissioner of Environment employed miscreants to go about talking pictures of such flash points.
On the 26th of April, the Commissioner invited to his house Messrs Mgba Ukang, Agbor Collins Onoyom and Ekpeyong Edet Asuquo and accused them of removing a skip bin from Calabar Municipality to Calabar South, but when they refuted and debunked the allegation, he called on the waiting policemen in one of his rooms. These police officers now striped this men who happen to be @ source workers of CUDA of their trousers, shirts, singlets and left them with only boxers and hauled them into an opened pickup to the police station like harden criminals.
In my interview with one of the assaulted CUDA staff, I was told that Joe Adie, the Director of Waste called them to the Commissioner's house and told them that as they go to the Commissioner's house, if the Commissioner ask them about the disputed bin, they should openly lie that Joe Merry Ekeng Ita ordered them to remove them. He further warned that with such blackmail they will be released and set free. Their refusal to play the Commissioner's script visited them with the beatings of their life.
Since October 2015, the governor approved May 2015 salary for Calabar Urban Development Authority. This is April 2016, the Commissioner has not paid that salary. He has no reason for not paying. In March 2016, he said he took a loan to pay only the Waste Management Agency sidelining the Calabar Urban Development Authority, all in a bid to ferment trouble for CUDA management. All of the above is a ploy to extinct CUDA for him to take over. By denying CUDA all of the above is to make CUDA management incompetent because the man manning the office of the Executive Secretary is not from the northern senatorial zone. The Commissioner does not see any other person as reasonable, responsible or capable of doing anything meaningful except you are from the northern part.
Joseph Odok
Is a University Don & Social Media Change Agent
