August 19, (THEWILL) — The Special Adviser to the governor of Benue state on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Denen Aondoakaa, has said that the Alia administration has placed priority on security and revamping of healthcare services for the rural populace.
Playing host to members of the correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria union of journalists in Makurdi on Monday, Mr Denen maintained that the administration of Alia is doing the renovation in partnership with relevant stakeholders under the IMPACT Project Nigeria, a World Bank assisted project.
According to Mr Denen, the government has embarked on the project to ensure that health services are sufficiently made available to rural dwellers at minimal cost, adding that each Local Government has three to four primary health care centres.
“We want to ensure that when a woman walk into a Primary Healthcare, someone is there to attend to her. We are also renovating staff quarters and chairmen residential buildings to make them stay back at their respective local government areas to work instead of running to urban centres”, Aondoakaa stated.
Aondoakaa stated that residential quarters for the Director of General Services and Administration (DGSA) and Chairmen were dilapidated and abandoned, pointing out that renovating and creating an enabling environment for the officers to stay comfortably and work in their respective is key to security checks.
The Special Adviser argued that the security situation in the state as inherited in the past administrations added that there are still communities in the state that people cannot access their ancestral homes as a result of continued attacks by suspected headers.
“The anti-open grazing law is still in place in the State. Any cow that is not ranched in Benue State is not supposed to be an owners for breaking the law”, Aondoakaa said.
He said the state government is doing everything to support the security agencies to do their job in the state, stating that the government will continue to improve on what they are doing through the donation of vehicles, motorcycles and other logistic support.
The Special Adviser, therefore, called on Benue people to stay behind the governor Alia administration to deliver on the mandate Benue people have given to him in 2023.
In his speech, the chairman of the Correspondents chapel, Comrade Emmanuel Antswen, said the visit was to familiarise themselves with the Bureau, adding that journalists are out to hold public office holders accountable to their action.
He assured that members of the chapel will always scrutinise and report accurately the affairs of the state, particularly on the affairs of the Bureau.
