… As Aniagwu, Ameachi Turns Bouncers
The hope of Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa may be very bleak come 2019 following a total showdown that greeted his arrival at the Cenotaph, Delta State the venue for the empowerment of STEPrenures who were trained in different trades by the state government.
Loading ...The youths who are drawn from the three senatorial districts of the state were trained in Electrical installation and Repairs, Fashion Design and Tailoring and Computer Hard ware Repairs but the Electrical Installation and Repairs protested the in-completion of the starter-packs given to them which includes only a ladder and empty tools box before the governor arrived the venue.
On discovering that the governor was close to the venue, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Barr. Festue Ovie Agas, Commissioner for Information, Mr. Patrick Ukah and Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs. Omoshola Williams tried to calm the aggrieved STEPrenures to no avail.
The STEPrenure who were already chanting “we no go agree ooo, we no go agree”, said that they need the complete starter-pack including a generating set to enable them test-run their work.
They also complained that transport fare has not been given to them as some of them came from Burutu, Bomadi and many other riverine areas of the state, adding that the said N3, 500 and N5, 000 purportedly said would be given to them would not be enough to carry them to their destinations even as the other two categories (Fashion Design and Tailoring and Computer Hard Ware and Repairs echoed that their starter packs were not also complete when the governor asked them.
“It is just a ladder, an empty tools box and a drilling machine that is on ground, we need laptops for auto-card electrical design, a swage complete tool box, PPE and other safety equipment including computers for proper working environment”, those trained in Electrical Installation and Repairs said.
It was alleged that the Commissioner for Economic Planning, Dr Kingsley Emu and the Job Creation Officer, Prof. Eric Eboh and their teams quickly went and brought tools from different places to make up the toolbox when the protesters went wide.
Embattled with the protest from the STEPrenures, Emu and Eboh were running around the venue of the empowerment to safe their heads from shame and their jobs to please Okowa who has warned his aides against any act of corruption.
Some of the protesters who addressed the governor on behalf of the STEPrnures said, “We met and we brought out the list of things that which could be added. We will appreciate if it could be reviewed, for the tools box, we made a recommendation if we can have swage complete tool box and the PPE. I gave an instance, while we were working at Abraka, we had an accident. We had to rush the boy out to the hospital because a hammer fell on his head and we said we need some safety things in place to make sure that we do this our work properly”.
According to them, “these items were brought individually and placed inside the box. If we say let us trace these items to a particular company it cannot be traced. For us to test run our work, we need a generating set and the tools box is not a comprehensive one as what was said the other day at the camp. The drilling machine, we cannot use it without light, that is our submission sir”, they said.
In his reaction, the governor who seemed already angry with the development said, “I appreciate that as Deltans, we have the rights to air our views but I also believed that as very matured people who have passed through this process that there is a better way to air these view and I have the impression with what I have seen here that even when you have the right to air the views, I am worried that it appears that we are not prepared, because if you know that you have an avenue to air you views, you don’t have to come by the way of this protest” the governor lamented.
Okowa said, “starter-packs may be given and may not be given. Because I have witnessed so many empowerment programmes. In the first instance, it is important that we understand it that it is not under compulsion that there must be a starter pack following the training. I also believe that when the starter packs is been given, it may not just be exactly what you want and it is obvious from what I have seen. If you make your request as a demand, I am not under compulsion to do so”, Okowa threatened.
“So don’t believe that by acting up, it will make you to get what you are asking of, it is obviously no. Go and look at the word ‘starter pack’ and what it means, “I think say those wen dey electrical installations no be say ona no get complain, ona get but the way ona take put em no good, ona no arrange em well. It is selfish of us to ask of transport”, Okowa said.
Angry Okowa who ordered the microphone to be taken from one of the STEPrenures who dared to speak on equity, said “If N100, 000 was budgeted for a trade and the starter packs given to that person did not gulp the entire money, the remaining balance should be given to the person”, this infuriated the governor saying, “If that is where you are going, you are not being reasonable, I want to be frank. It is the course that you chose that you get not a question of equity, we don’t reason that way. It is a poor way of reasoning, drop the microphone”, angry Okowa ordered him.
Meanwhile, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the governor, Mr. Charles Ehiedu Aniagwu and the Special Adviser to the governor on electronic media, Amaechi Udemba, turned bouncers when their principal mounted the podium to address the angry STEPrenures.
Journalists, predominantly from the electronic, who stationed their cameras in front of the governor were been pushed here and there by the duo on grounds that they (newsmen) were not transparent to the STEPrenures.
