By ogenyi ogenyi,uyo
Governor umo eno of akwa ibom has authorized the immediate release of the sum of n4.75bn for the payment of gratuities to retirees and outstanding allowances to primary school teachers in the state.
This is in fulfillment of his electioneering campaign promises towards the regular payment of gratuities, the prioritization of the welfare of civil servants in the state.
The breakdown of the release of the funds as contained in a press statement by his chief press secretary, mr ekerette udo yesterday in uyo showed that n2.3bn would be for the payment of gratuities for retired state civil servants, retired primary school teachers, and retired local government workers.
It further stated that n1.1bn would be for the one-off payment of wardrobe allowance 20,345 public primary school, technical college, and secondary school teachers and n1.0bn for the payment of bonuses of n20,000 to each of the 52,000 state public service workers, as announced by the governor during the recently concluded public service week events.
“The governor has also released the sum of 79 million naira for the award of full scholarships for four akwa ibom indigenes who were recently granted admission to study the standard pilot course and standard air traffic control course at the nigerian college of aviation technology, zaria.
“Additionally, 104 million naira has been released as the first tranche payment of the 2024 primary school teachers’ leave grant, and 172 million naira as a severance gratuity package for chairmen and vice-chairmen of local government councils who served from 2018-2022.
“The release of these funds further deepens the compassionate bonafides of governor eno towards the downtrodden, which he had promised to champion.
“The construction of arise compassionate homes throughout the state, which he is currently being celebrated for, the monthly 50 thousand naira palliative for elderly care throughout the state, the free medical outreach programmes he has been funding, the arise free food voucher programme executed under the bulk purchase agency,
“Others include the n2bn interest-free loans to traders as well as arewa, yoruba, igbo and niger delta communities in the state, the 500 thousand naira grant given to each of the over 800 budding entrepreneurs under the ibom-led entrepreneurship accelerator programme (eap).
“Also, the payment of bursary and other educational grants, among other infusion of funds towards the expansion of soft infrastructure while also executing bold and audacious hard infrastructure, define governor eno as a man who has kept faith with his campaign promises.” the statement said.
