By Amos Aar
BARELY three months to the end of his second term in office, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has directed the state’s Head of Service, Mrs Veronica Onyeke, to convert all casual staff working with the Benue State Environmental Sanitation Authority (BENSESA) to permanent and pensionable status.
Ortom, who gave the directive Monday at Government House, Makurdi while presenting six waste vehicles to BENSESA, further instructed that the appointments should be backdated to the year 2020.
He described as a gross injustice to have allowed the staff to work for over ten years as casual workers.
The governor however did not state whether the staff whose appointments were to be backdated to 2020 will be paid before he will leave office and whether he was unaware of the casual status of the staff that exceeded ten years before his last days in office.
The equipment presented by the governor to BENSESA were five waste collection vehicles and a septic emptier procured at the cost of N230 million naira by the state government according to Ortom.
The governor tasked the management of the agency on proper maintenance of the vehicles and to ensure full implementation of the sanitation law through mobile courts and fines for offenders to increase its revenue base.
Taking delivery of the equipment, the General Manager of BENSESA, Hon. Solomon Onah, said the agency would adopt new approaches to manage waste in the state, revealing that mobile courts will henceforth be sitting regularly to punish people who disobey sanitation laws.
Hon. Onah cautioned people against keeping refuse at road dividers in the heart of the town and advised every household to have a waste collection bucket and pay a fee for the refuse to be disposed-off by BENSESA staff.
