Theft, dereliction of duty: Gov suspends Health, Housing Commissioners

Ebonyi State Governor Francis Nwifuru has suspended the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Moses Ekuma, and the Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Francis Ori.

This was disclosed in a statement issued by the Ebonyi State Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, Jude Okpor, on Tuesday, November 26, 2024.

“Following cases of gross misconduct and dereliction of duties by some government officials and matters related thereto, the Chairman of Council directed the indefinite suspension of the Honourable Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development and three months suspension of the Honourable Commissioner for Health respectively,” Okpor stated.

The latest development comes after the governor caught some officials of the Ebonyi State Ministry of Health during an alleged attempt to sell some documents belonging to the state government.

The Star had reported that Nwifuru, in a video posted on his Facebook page on Saturday, November 23, 2024, interrogated the officials, with the documents loaded in a vehicle.

Nwifuru said: “You are selling government documents without approval.

“The state’s hospitals in the rural areas are in need of registers data entry forms and hospital cards.

VIDEO: Governor caught health officials selling govt documents

“Unfortunately, you are selling the ones produced by the government.”

Speaking on the incident via a statement on Sunday, the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Dr Monday Uzor, said Uwifuru had ordered the arrest and prosecution of six officials of the Ebonyi State Ministry of Health for allegedly diverting materials meant for the ministry.

Uzor said the governor ordered the arrest of one Ndukwe Ayansi and five others over the issue.

Uzor stated that Nwifuru while inspecting projects on Saturday afternoon cited an articulated vehicle loading registers, books, and other materials from the warehouse of the Ministry of Health.

He noted: “Nwifuru stopped and made inquiries but not satisfied with the answers given to him.

“The governor probed further and discovered that patients’ data registers, cards, and other documents were being moved into the vehicle.

“He also discovered that all the documents had been sold without government approval.”

Uzor quoted the governor as describing the action as sabotage of the government’s efforts at repositioning the health sector.

Uzor noted that the suspects had been handed over to the police, adding that an investigation into the incident was ongoing.

The Star