The Abia State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, has decried the excessive stage of intimidation and extortion of hapless residents by safety companies within the South-East, notably at checkpoints throughout the area.
NUJ made the statement in Umuahia by way of an 8-point communique signed by Abia NUJ Chairman, Victor Ndukwe and Adaeze Ralph Igbokwe, Secretary, after the month-to-month congress of the union.
It frowned on the actions of the safety companies and urged the governors of the South-East states to deal with the state of affairs.
The response of the NUJ adopted complaints by motorists and passengers plying South-East roads.
The union, which enjoined Abia residents to massively embark on farming throughout with a view to increase native manufacturing as a sensible measure to curtail the shortage and astronomical rise in costs of meals gadgets, urged the Abia State Authorities to make farm inputs comparable to fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and improved varieties out there to farmers at sponsored charges, in addition to put methods in place for uptake of the yields throughout harvest .
NUJ members counseled the NLC in Abia State for becoming a member of their counterparts throughout the nation in organizing a peaceable protest in opposition to the present hardship within the nation and suggested the state authorities to urgently give you a wage award and different incentives for employees.
Whereas commending Governor Alex Otti for some reforms he launched within the state civil service, Abia NUJ members appealed to the governor to look into the plight of retirees within the state with a view to resolving their pension points.
The journalists urged the Abia State Authorities to instantly re-appraise the civil servants’ verification train within the and attend to the cries of employees who’re but to obtain salaries because the verification train started, even because it referred to as for hastened upward evaluate of Abia employees’ salaries to cushion the results of financial hardship ravaging the land.
It additional urged the Abia State authorities to be proactive in addressing the extent of hardship among the many individuals of the state.
On the commissioning of the Geometric Energy Plant in Aba, the NUJ counseled the administration of the ability firm for the feat and praised the Abia State authorities for each help it prolonged to Geometric in direction of the completion of the challenge, including that the challenge would herald a brand new daybreak of industrialization in Abia and Nigeria on the whole.