Ibeno (Akwa Ibom) –  Ibeno Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom says it has been paying N400,000 monthly electricity bills on behalf of its communities for the past three years.

Mrs Regina Egbe, the council Chairman, disclosed this on Tuesday when she received some journalists from the state council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), on assessment tour of the area.

The tour is intended to evaluate the performance of the 31 councils of the state in the last three years.

“Once there is no light, the whole community will come to the council headquarters to demand why there is outage. Nobody pays electricity bills here, it is the council that does the payment.”

Egbe said she inherited arrears of electricity bills from PHCN totaling N7 million on assumption of office.

“Today, we have reduced the debt to N4 million. The issue of payment of electricity bills consumed by our people is sensitive and we have to tread softly.”

Egbe said that she had been able to maintain peace in the hitherto volatile oil rich communities of Ibeno area in the past three years.

“As a mother, I relate with the youths very well. I increased the monthly allowance for the youth council from N100,000 to N200,000. I increased the monthly stipends for the chiefs from N10,000 to N20,000 and there is absolute peace here in Ibeno.”

The Chairman said that she had also built an ICT centre at the headquarters to train the youth in information technology.

Egbe said that 30 young women had been trained in fashion design and equipped with starter packs by her administration.

She said her administration built a health centre at Okoro Utip village, to minimise the people’s hardship of crossing the river by boat for medical attention at the headquarters.

The Chairman said her administration renovated doctors’ quarters at Mkpanak’s clinic and also constructed market shops at Iwuo Okpom beach.

Egbe said her greatest challenge in the local government administration was settlement of judgment debts.

Earlier, the NUJ state Secretary and leader of the team, Mr Joe Robert, said the exercise, tagged “Local Government scorecard 2011”, would lead to an award ceremony for the best performing chairman.

Robert said the press as the watchdog of the society owed the state a duty to inform the citizens on the performances of the various tiers of government.(NAN)