By Frank Ulom
The Governor of Cross River State, Sen. Bassey Otu, has approved N1,960,000,000 (one billion, nine hundred and sixty million naira) car grant for the 196 ward councillors in the state.
Converseer reports that each councillor gets N10 million car grant each.
According to former Special Assistant on New Media to the Governor and current candidate of the APC for Bakassi State Constituency, Andrea Ekeng Inyang, the governor further directed that the payments be made this week, without any deductions.
“This will be the first time in history that councilors are given cars or monies for cars in the state without a direct deduction from their salaries,” Inyang added.
Confirming the development, Darlington Edem, Deputy Press Secretary to the Governor, said the N10 million was not the decision of the Governor but that of the councillors.
“The N10 million was not the decision of the governor, rather, it was part of the many option he governor placed on the table for them. It was when the governor said he was going to allow them decide and get back to him at anytime, that they decided to choose the option of N10m right there.
“Against the usual tradition of deducting there monies from their salaries, the governor made it very clear that the N10 million will not be deducted from their salaries,” Edem said.
