The Ebonyi State Government is to budget N3 billion for the rehabilitation of Ebonyi indigenes hawking in major cities of Lagos, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, Aba and other across the country.

This was part of the resolution reached during this week’s state Executive Council meeting in Abakaliki, the state capital.

Briefing newsmen in Abakaliki, the Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, Senator Emmanuel Onwe, said the Special Advisor to the Governor, Lagos Liaison Office, Mrs Jacinta Nworie, had been redeployed and re-assigned as SA on Talent Development.

Mrs Nworie, according to him, has been charged with the responsibility of conducting a census of the hawkers with a view to rehabilitating them.

He said: “The SA on Lagos Liaison Office is to immediately be redeployed by the Secretary to State Government and to be relocated or reassigned to the office of the SSG. Her position is to be redesignated as SA on Talent Development in the Department of Talent Development. Her responsibility would be, first, to conduct a comprehensive census of all Ebonyi indigenes who are hawking in the major cities, like, Lagos, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, Aba and elsewhere.

“Once such comprehensive census is taken, it is the resolution of EXCO to make a budget of N3 billion to begin a rehabilitation process of all Ebonyians who are engaged in a disgraceful and humiliating activities of hawking on the highways in major cities of Lagos, Port Harcourt, Onitsha and so on.”

The commissioner also disclosed that the Executive Council terminated a contract awarded for the provision of electricity at the Federal Teaching Hospital, FETHA 2, in Abakaliki.

He said that his Power counterpart, Chief Emmanuel Uguru, was given one week to take over the contract and complete it for commissioning.

The council, according to the commissioner, also banned the sale of used cable wires in the state and advised those selling such to get approval from the Commissioner for Power to avoid being charged to court.

Senator Onwe explained that this was part of the measures taken to avert the stealing or vandalism of cable wires in the state.

The commissioner equally disclosed that the council banned government functionaries and civil servants from attending private functions scheduled for Fridays.
•Photo shows Governor Dave Umahi if Ebonyi State.