By Emma Una

CALABAR—Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State has scrapped the weekly Executive Council meeting, where the governor and his deputy meet with commissioners, special advisers and  permanent secretaries to  review  the activities of government in the state.

Governor Ayade, who announced the scrapping of the meeting at a closed-door meeting with permanent secretaries in the state public and civil service, yesterday, directed that in place of the weekly exco meeting, there will be a monthly  interactive session in the Executive Council  Chambers.

The governor, at the meeting with the permanent secretaries, also scrapped the anti-deforestation taskforce put in place by his predecessor to checkmate the illegal logging of  forest reserves  in the state for which the United Nations  had  granted $600 million  for the carbond credit accruing from the forest reserves.

Ayade who did not proffer an alternative solution to the illegal logging, simply said: “Government has approved the disbandment of the Task Force on Illegal Logging in the state while all offenders are to be fully prosecuted without delay.”

He also directed that refuse disposal should be done only at nights from 11 p.m., to 5 a.m., to keep the environment in the state clean.