Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has announced that the state government will construct a central abattoir for the state capital that will cater for the needs of Port Harcourt City and Obio/Akpor Local Government Areas.
The governor also explained that he suspended the State Works Commissioner, Mr Kevin Wachukwu because of negligence of duty and failure to monitor projects effectively.
Addressing Journalists in Port Harcourt on Saturday after visiting the site of the new central abattoir , Governor Wike said other abattoirs in Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor Local Government Areas will be closed when the central abattoir to be located at Elelenwo-Akpajo road is completed.
The governor noted that the new abattoir will have modern slaughter facilities and open stalls for small vegetable and other traders.
He also inspected ongoing construction work on the second Nkpogu-NLNG bridge and the Peter Odili road. At the Nkpogu-NLNG bridge, Governor Wike charged the contractor, MCC construction Limited to ensure quality execution of the project.
On the suspension of the Works Commissioner, Governor Wike said he was at three project sites on Friday only to notice that the Works Commissioner failed to deploy site engineers to monitor the execution of the contracts from the standpoint of the state government.
According to him: “This is the time to deliver good governance to the people of Rivers State and I will not tolerate negligence of duty. The failure to deploy site engineers to these project three project sites means that the government and people of the state can be short-changed via poor quality delivery. The contracts have provision for site engineers and project vehicles. There was no reason why it was not enforced.
“If I am always at project sites supervising the quality and pace of work, there is no reason why the commissioner should not do the same. This goes to other Commissioners. We are in the era of governance and every official must work for the people of the state “.
A statement by Simeon Nwakaudu, Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor on Electronic Media noted that the governor was accompanied on the Saturday project inspection by Former Deputy Governor , Tele Ikuru, Member-elect Port Harcourt Federal Constituency 1, Mr Ken Chikere, Chairman of MCC, Senator John Mbata, Senator Lee Maeba, Chairman of Rivers State PDP, Bro Felix Obuah, Chief Sergeant Awuse, Chief Staff to the Governor, Engineer Emeka Woke, State Lawmakers, Victor Ihunwo and Major Jack.