..task citizens residents on COVID-19 safety rules

By Chioma Onuegbu, Uyo

Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State has condemned the involvement of youths in cultism, noting that most of the crimes in the state especially armed robbery, and killings are perpetrated by cultists.

Emmanuel who spoke yesterday while fielding questions from newsmen in Uyo frowned at a situation where Secondary Schools now carry locally made pistols to threaten teachers and sometimes block the major road and terrorising members of the public.

His words, “About 99.9 per cent of the people we have arrested in terms of armed robbery, kidnapping, all of them confessed to be cultists. Let me shock you because I am not shy to say this anywhere.

“There is somebody I just swore in as a local government council chairman. Immediately after he was sworn into office, somebody went straight to him and told him, ‘look, you are going to be impeached if you don’t agree to join Buccaneer’

” Is it compulsory that one must join? Let that happen in that local government, let me see. Even if you are my blood brother, the day I will catch you, you must go to jail because it is against the law. My duty is to keep telling people that this thing is bad; by preaching against it”

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The governor announced his administration’s plan to ensure all Secondary Schools within Uyo metropolis were fenced round by 2021 in order to prevent thieves from having access into Schools premises to steal.

The governor who disclosed that the project would commence by ending of January 2021 and completed by the first quarter of 2021.

“We are declaring war in Education in 2021. By the first quarter of next year all secondary Schools in Uyo would be fenced round so that when we provide infrastructure, that infrastructure will stay. They have stolen all the computers in most of our schools”, he stressed.

The governor prayed that the Soul of Publisher of the Leadership Newspaper, late Sam Ndah-Isaiah who died from COVID-19 rest in perfect peace, saying he was his very good friend and a vibrant young man.

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He appealed to citizens and residents to make sure they stay safe during and protect themselves from contracting the deadly virus.

He lamented that governments spend huge sums of money for the treatment, noting that “government treats people free of charge and it is so expensive. In fact this morning alone I spent N18million on it.

“So we must cooperate with the government to ensure that it didn’t get to a point where it overwhelmed us. Let’s try to stay safe. And if anybody tells you that Coronavirus is not real, that person wants you to die.

” The Isolation centre we built, I didn’t say it is for COVID-19, I said it is Infectious Disease Control Centre. At a time like this, we need your support not just as a state, but also as a country, because a whole lot of things have changed.

” This virus has killed the economy of the whole world, it is really devastating. Nobody knew that it will drag till now. To stay safe during this second wave, the safest thing to do is to wear your face mask always”

Vanguard News Nigeria