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Soludo Describes Simon Ekpa As ‘A Mad Man’, Says sit-at-home Will End In 2023

Published

2 years ago

December 23, 2022

Anambra governor, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, on Wednesday, December 21, vowed to stop the weekly sit-at-home trend in the state that had continued for months.

Soludo, who spoke on the 2022 Public Servants Day, described Simon Ekpa, the organiser of the last sit-at-home, as “a madman in Finland.”

He said it was only in Anambra that the order was not obeyed, adding that the trend will be completely abolished by next year. According to him, Anambra could no longer afford the loss of 20 per cent of its public life to sit-at-home, which is already becoming part of life in the southeast.

Punch newspaper quoted him as saying:

“Eight local government areas were totally taken over at the time we came, they said they were unknown gunmen, no, they are known gunmen born of women and from communities.

“Last week, one mad man living in Finland said he was declaring sit-at-home, it was only in Anambra that it was not observed. By the time you return next year, we shall stop sit-at-home.

“We must get back to work, working five days in a week, we must take back Anambra from the criminals, we can not build a prosperous Anambra when we work four days, when our children go to school four days, that is a 20 per cent loss in productivity.”

In a related development, the minister of works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, on Wednesday, December 21, stated that the sit-at-home order in the southeast contributed immensely to the seeming delay in the completion of the Second Niger Bridge project.

Fashola disclosed this when he appeared as a Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily guest. According to him, while construction workers work Saturdays, a 52-day loss must be made up for in construction work.

Meanwhile, Professor Soludo has approved N15,000 as a Christmas bonus for civil servants in the state. The governor also announced a 10 per cent salary increase for civil servants in the state, according to a statement by Christian Aburime, his chief press secretary.

The statement seen by Edujandon.com noted that Soludo made the announcements at the celebration of the ‘2022 Public Service Day” on Tuesday, December 20, in Awka, the Anambra state capital.