The office of the Ministry of Information in the South-eastern part of the country is set to be ejected by the owner of the rented building over rents.
Lai Mohammed
The Federal Ministry of Information has allegedly been given a one week quit notice to vacate its Abia State office, by the landlord of the property, Azuka Okoroafor.
According to reports, the notice served was backed by an order of the magistrate through the lawyer, which authorized them to seek an order to eject the ministry.
It was reportedly stated that the current Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had not paid rent for two years since he took over the running of the ministry.
An official of the ministry said: “Since Alhaji Lai Mohammed was appointed as the Minister of Information and Culture, he has not taken the welfare of the Ministry of Information seriously.
“He is using the money of the Ministry of Information to run the Ministry of Culture, but Culture is under Information.
“We have never seen such a situation where a minister will hide in the Ministry of Culture and abandon the Ministry of Information and that is why we are having this issue of non-payment of our rent. Our rent has not been paid for over two years and we are suffering it now.
“We don’t even know what comes next. Our landlord has threatened to eject us any moment from now, and he started a court action against us.
“Our staff members have been advised to take their personal belongings from the office because we may come to work one morning and find out that the office has been locked up.”