Abia State governor, Alex Otti, has reiterated his warning to traditional rulers, landlords and heads of organizations in the State against tolerating criminal activities in and around their domains.
The governor, who gave the warning during his New Year broadcast to residents of the State, said his administration would sanction any royal father, community leader, landlord or head of organization found harboring or tolerating criminals in and around their areas.
He urged Abia residents to report any suspected criminal or criminal activities to security agencies for prompt action.
“Let me repeat my earlier warning that the State government shall not look kindly to any traditional or community leader, landlord or head of any organization that harbours criminals.
“Any tolerance, subtle or open support for crime in any part of the state would be seen as an act of sabotage and the government would not hesitate to do what it must do to protect the lives of its citizens,” Otti vowed.
He promised that the salaries of civil servants in his State would be increased in 2024, to reflect the economic realities of the time.
Otti, who said that a cordial relationship exists between the three arms of government in Abia, used the broadcast to urge Abia residents to promptly pay their taxes using government digital platforms and to maintain a clean environment, saying that doing so would enable his administration to deliver more infrastructural development.
He promised to use the 2024 budget recently signed into law to develop the health, education, technology, and environmental sectors as well as job creation in the State, as well as carry out mass infrastructural works in parts of the State.
He regretted that his administration is yet unable to keep its promises of clearing the backlog of arrears of pensions, promising that the pension arrears would be cleared before the end of the first quarter of 2024.
Otti, who said that his administration earlier earmarked the money to clear the backlog of pensions, regretted that the government could not complete the pensions clearance after it was discovered during digital verification that the actual number of retirees were double the earmarked allocation.