Speaking after the swearing in ceremony held at Government House Umuahia, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu while congratulating him on the important milestone, charged him to leverage his experience and the service of the judiciary to to ensure that the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is improved upon.
Ikpeazu further charged him to put a stop to incessant judgements against the state and field operations in terms of IGR collections as well as support the State IGR council to tripple it’s efforts in revenue generation.
“Under your watch, we expect that the revenue council will do three times what they are doing presently because our government can not continue to run with the lean IGR which we experienced in the past four years.
“Government noticed a situation where we made close to N155 billion in four years and spent N100 billion paying salaries alone, leaving only N55billion for government business including security, overheads and infrastructure”,governor Ikpeazu said.
While noting that the Executive arm of Government has had a robust relationship with the Judiciary since 2015,Governor Ikpeazu urged the new Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice to maintain the same trajectory and expressed confidence that he will utilize his wealth of experience as a former commissioner in the Abia State government as well as his law practice in the service of the state.
In his acceptance speech, the newly sworn in Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, said he will not dissapoint the state government assuring that as a member of the IGR council, he will deliver on the mandate and charge given to him.
Barr. Ihediwa while pleading with Abians to obey the law warned that the rule of law must be obeyed as there will be no sacred cows adding that he is going to ensure strict enforcement of the law.
He thanked Governor Ikpeazu for finding him worthy to serve the state.
