Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State, on Monday paid a visit to Ministries, Offices and Market in the State, to monitor the level of compliance of the sit-at-home directive that was given last week.
Last week, the Enugu Government had called on residents of the state to ignore the sit-at-home being enforced by some members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB and directed all schools, markets, banks, retail outlets, hospitals, transporters, and malls to operate every day of the week, including Mondays.
It warned that defaulters of the directive may be forced to shut down with immediate effect, stressing that the states’s taskforce would be moving around to check compliance.
The Governor who spoke to newsmen at the end of the monitoring exercise, said that the compliance level is about 60 to 70 per cent, noting that not all the workers got the information that there was no sit-at-home on Mondays.
He stated that productivity was key to all the promises he made to Enugu citizens to drive investment inflow into the state, create jobs, and provide quality services and he won’t relent on it.
“The primary objective of my visitations is largely to observe the level of compliance of the directive that we gave last week, declaring that we do not have sit-at-home in Enugu henceforth. The directive was meant to ensure that our people come out on the first working and productive day of the week.
“We do have a compliance level of about 60 to 70 per cent, and the order took effect from today. I am aware the circular to this effect was sent out on Friday. It may well be that not all the workers got the information that we no longer have sit-at-home on Mondays.
“The truth is that everything we have promised our people in Enugu is anchored on getting the flow of private sector investments into our state; and the private sector cannot come into a state where the people are not productive. The private sector thrives on big markets and a vibrant workforce.
“We have to revive that spirit of hard work and culture of commerce and industry that our people are known for. We want to reinstate that, and that is exactly what we are doing”.
He further assured the people of his government’s commitment to the security of lives and property every other day of the week, Mondays inclusive.
“Security of lives and property is essentially the oath we took and that is at the top of our priorities. We must ensure the safety of our people. And we have also said repeatedly that our people should go about their businesses”.