ASABA/Nigeria: The Delta State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Patrick Ukah, has reiterated the commitment of the state government to complying with the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.
The commissioner who stated this in Asaba during a workshop, organised by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Federal Information chapel, on the popularisation of the FOI Act, said that the state government would continue to ensure that journalists and other stakeholders have unhindered access to information on its policies and programmes.
Represented by the Chief Information Officer and Editor of the Ministry’s Bulletin, Mr. Churchill Oyowe, Ukah said that the state government had opened its activities and encouraged journalists to access information on the state’s website on the SMART Agenda of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.
“Everything about the state budget is on the website and there is no need for people to say they don’t have information and start speculating,” he said.
The Chairman of the state Council of NUJ, Mr. Michael Ikeogwu, while presenting a paper, said that the FOI Act would “remain a beautiful work of art and good for the shelves like every other government unimplemented policies if no deliberate effort is made to domicile the Act in the minds of Nigerians.”
Advising media practitioners to wake up to their statutory responsibility and the FOI Act in the discharge of their duties, he held that the lack of concerted and sustained media campaign remained the bane of driving home the essence of the Act.
