To curb the effect of the impending flood, the Delta State Executive Council [EXCO] met yesterday and set up a high-powered committee which has the state Deputy Governor, Barrister Kingsley Otuaro, as Chairman.
Briefing the press after the executive council meeting which took place at Government House, Asaba, the Commissioners for Information, Mr. Patrick Ukah; that of Works, Chief James Augoye and his Basic and Secondary Education counterpart, Mr. Chiedu Ebie, observed that though awareness campaign was going on in different riverine communities sensitizing them on the urgent need to move to safe areas, the Committee was necessary to reduce the effects of the impending disaster.
According to the Commissioners, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s administration was not leaving any stone unturned in safeguarding the lives and property of Deltans, adding that the committee would ensure that appropriate measures would be applied to educate and protect the people and appealed to journalists and stakeholders to be involved in the exercise.
The commissioners also disclosed that the EXCO meeting, which was presided over by Governor Okowa, approved the establishment of three new secondary schools in Asaba, Ughelli and Agbor to cater for the number of students which has risen in public schools as a result of the handing over of some schools to the missionaries.
Ebie specifically said that due to the current financial crunch, existing structures would be used for the new schools, reiterating that the intention of Governor Okowa’s administration was to maintain the universally accepted students to teachers’ ratio.
He asserted that existing teachers would be deployed to the new schools, disclosing that the Post Primary Education Board (PPEB) has more than fourteen thousand teachers in its payroll.
“Despite the financial situation of the economy, EXCO looked at the need to ensure that our children gets the best in education, so, the new schools will reduce the crowding been witnessed in some of the schools and we are doing it with little or no cost because we are using existing structures,” he said.
He also said, that EXCO approved the refurbishing of the three technical colleges that were not already been reconstructed to provide more technical institutions in line with Governor Okowa’s desire to empower Deltan youths with the needed skills to be self-sufficient.
To ensure that the roads in the state were motorable, the Commissioner for Works stated that EXCO has directed the Direct Labour Agency (DLA) to embark on palliative measures to make the roads motorable while waiting for the rains to stop, assuring, “we are going to embark on massive construction of roads, we are just waiting for the rain to stop.”
On the emerging menace of trailers parking on the highway by the Asaba International Airport, the commissioners said the situation was frowned at and measures have been put in place to check the ugly trend.
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