Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule has threatened to sack staff of NEWMAP in Karu area of the state for their inability to utilise funds at their disposal to carry out projects.
He issued the threat when he hosted representatives of the World Bank and NEWMAP national officials who were on a visit to the government house, recently.
The governor, who was displeased by the inability of the state to utilise funds at its disposal after committing over N500million as counterpart funds, directed staff of NEWMAP in the state to either immediately move to the project office in Karu or leave the job.
He lamented that the state was only able to utilize N700m out of $2m in the project account and that the project was unwinding in 18 months’ time.
“Those who are slow don’t work with me. They have no business working with me; they don’t have to waste their time pretending because there is no need for that,” he said.
Earlier, World Bank Representative, Dr. Amos Abu, disclosed that compared to the pace of the project across 23 states of the federation, NEWMAP activities in Nasarawa were slow, mostly because of the lack of implementation of activities.
“We cannot afford to be moving at the pace the state is currently moving. I say this because of the objectives of the project itself. It will help you to address erosion, flood and other natural disasters,” he said.