GOV UZODIMMA SACKS IMSUTH CMD, RESTORES LANDS TAKEN BY PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATION

Reporter : CHUKWUKA AGUKWE

Imo State Government has approved the restoration of plots of land that were forcefully taken through fraudulent Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) by the previous administrations
to the original owners.

The State Commissioner for Information, Chief Declan Emelumba, made this known to journalists at the end of the State Executive Council meeting in Owerri.

Chief Emelumba said the state government had adopted the white paper report on land matters and other related issues as recommended by the panel of enquiry on lands, which also recommended the demolition of illegal structures at government house permanent site, Arugo and Ekwema Layouts.

According to the Commissioner the state government has ordered the removal from office, the Chief Medical Director of Imo State University Teaching Hospital IMSUTH Orlu due to high level of corruption discovered in the hospital.

Chief Emelumba noted that the removal from office was in line with the white paper recommendation by IMSUTH visitation panel.

He informed that the government had ordered further investigation of the University management by the police.

Chief Emelumba stressed that the State Exco wondered how the wage bill rose from one hundred and forty-seven million naira to two hundred and thirty million naira from December 2019 to January 2020.

The Commissioner also stated that the government had launched investigations into the hospital accounts, including unaudited accounts from 2017 to 2019, illegal payment of clinical and teaching allowances to administrative staff amongst others.