The meeting which commenced at 11 am, was chaired by HE the Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel with HE, the Deputy Governor, Secretary to the State Government, Head of the Civil Service, Honourable Commissioners & Special Advisers, Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Extra-Ministerial Departments, in attendance.Worthy of special note was the presence of the principal officers of the state legislature, led by the Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Aniekan Bassey.The Commissioner of Finance presented the budget as enacted by the Assembly and noted the amendments to the proposal sent from the executive. He intimated that the new cumulative value of the budget is now 456.2 Billion. The Attorney General spoke to the legal regularity of the entire processes of the enactment of the bill and invited the Governor to grant assent to the bill. The Governor gave his assent and signed the bill into law, with the commencement date set at January 1, 2021. The signing was witnessed by the Speaker and other principal officers of the House.The meeting rose to allow the exit of the Leadership of the House of Assembly, Permanent Secretaries and other heads of Extra-Ministerial Departments and to reconstitute into the regular EXCO meeting.In his opening remarks, the Governor noted the reports of insecurity in the state and informed that he will be chairing the security council meeting which will extensively deal with the issues at hand and proffer solutions.An update on the state of secondary education, post-school reopening was received from the Honourable Commissioner for Education. She assured that effective monitoring was ongoing and will be sustained to ensure punctuality of school attendance by students and regularity of classes by teachers.Upon conclusion of the meeting, the Governor presided over the security council meeting attended by all service commanders in the state, where the current security situation in the state was analyzed and the decision to reactivate a Joint Task Force was reached. 30 new Utility Vehicles were distributed to the different services for use in combating crime. These vehicles are the first batch of the 100 vehicles targeted to be delivered to the security agencies for mobility.The Commissioner of Police, Andrew Amiengheme speaking on behalf of the service commanders assured the citizens of maximum protection during the Yuletide and beyond. He urged citizens to call the police emergency numbers or the info hot line when there is an incident, instead of resorting to social media.Signed:Comrade Ini EmemobongHonourable Commissioner for Information & Strategy
