80 inmates are insane in Aba Prison – Official

August 19, 2016

BY IJENDU IHEAKA

The Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Prisons Service, Abia Command, Deputy Superintendent of Prisons (DSP) Kalu Ikpe, says the Aba Federal Prison has about 80 insane persons in its asylum.
Ikpe disclosed this in an interview with our reporter on Friday in Aba.
He said that the prison was taking care of the insane persons to ensure that they were stabilised enough to enable them answer their respective charges in court.
“Those who are not normal are put under observation and are made to see psychiatric doctors who work daily to ensure that their drugs are administered.
“You know that the prison inmates are our brothers, so we cannot abandon them,” he said.
Ikpe, however, stated that getting the insane inmates out of the prison, where necessary, was the duty of the Chief Judge and the courts which committed them to the prisons.
He said that the prison had no means of discovering if a potential inmate was sane or not at the point of receiving him, but would keep custody of anyone with valid arrest warrants.
“Sometimes even here in Umuahia where there is no asylum, we receive them but when after sometimes we observe a strange behaviour, we do a referral and send them to Aba where there is an asylum.
“In a situation where the individual’s case becomes worse or unmanageable by us, we alert the courts who committed them to our care.
“Depending on the nature of the alleged crime committed by the inmates, they are the people that can take decisions on their matters,” he said.
Ikpe said taking them to court depended on the degree of their mental health status.
He said that when jail deliveries were conducted, such cases were reviewed and appropriate actions taken on them.
Our reporter observed that as at Aug. 19, the prison has 600 inmates with only 113 convicted and serving full prison sentences.
About 374 inmates have not been convicted, while about 116 inmates are in awaiting trial status.

Abia state to involve a foreign company in waste recycling –ASEPA Board Chairman

August 16, 2016

BY IJENDU IHEAKA

The Chairman, Abia State Environmental Protection Agency,(ASEPA) Board, Mrs Loveth Ofoegbu on Tuesday said that the agency has plans to bring in a foreign company to recycle waste in Abia.

Ofoegbu disclosed this at during an interview with newsmen at Abayi, Aba during a public enlightenment campaign to show residents how to package and manage their wastes.

“We are also arranging for some foreign people to come to Nigeria, and Abia in particularly to establish a waste management recycling company. They will soon be here. 

“If you separate your waste, they will pay you. You will find out that when you give people a token for separation, everybody will be rushing to separate their wastes. 

“All those things are part of the plan. Just like I said, Rome was not built in a day. We are barely three months and we are doing this that means we know where we are going to”, she said.

She said that they were carrying out an awareness campaign to enlighten Abia residents on how to separate and package their wastes for easy handling.

Ofoegbu said that the governor had also approved the collaboration of the agency with a local waste management company, Halfan Cleaning Company to ensure that Abia state was made clean.

She said that the agency was working in concert with a Taskforce to enforce the plan of making Abia clean adding that anybody who fails to follow the rules would be dealt with.

“That is what we are fighting for so we urge the general public to assist us to make sure that the state is clean. 

“Anyway we are working in conjunction with a taskforce that is in charge of this. So if you fail to do that they will handle you and hand you over to the appropriate authority”, she said.

 Ofoegbu who is a lawyer also assured the agency was working to provide residents who do not have any dumpsters and waste buckets in their area some to put their waste in.

WAEC yet to select the highest scorer for 2016 examinations - Spokesman

August 16, 2016

BY IJENDU IHEAKA

West African Examination Council, WAEC, on Tuesday said that the body was yet to select the best candidate for the just released results of the 2016 examinations.

The spokesman of WAEC, Mr Demianus Ojijeogu told newsmen that the results would be consolidated before the highest scorers would be named and rewarded.

Our reporters observed that some candidates who had As in all nine subjects they sat for have been named in the social media as the highest scorers since the partial release of the results. 

“The ranking which has made some students the highest scorers in the last WAEC/SSCE examinations did not emanate from us.

“There were some mistakes in some candidates’ results. So we have pending results yet to be released. We are already working on them so that we can resolve the queries on them. 

“Some of them were caused by errors from candidates while they were registering. When we resolve the queries, we then release the results”, he said.

“We also have withheld results because of malpractice. We have reports from exam halls from our staff who were on inspection, our supervisors, independent monitors who sent in reports.

“We also got reports of malpractice from our marking venues, some of the examiners who marked the scripts also gave reports of some candidates copying each other, for instance in spelling, in a centre, over 20 to 40 candidates made the same mistake of misspelling “through”, how can that be? He asked.

He said that when the investigations have been concluded with enough proof of cheating, then the results would be forwarded to the Nigerian Examinations Committee for their final verdict on them.

Ojijeogu said that based on committee’s decision during their meeting which holds every November in a selected state, the pending results would either be cancelled or released.

“So since the results have not been consolidated, we would not say that this person had the best result because somebody whose result is pending can still perform better than somebody who result has been released”, he said

The Public Affairs Officer said that the highest scorers, male and female are later named and given awards in the following year during the meeting of the committee.

Abia state is committed to creating jobs, reducing crime – Information Commissioner

August 15, 2016

By IJENDU IHEAKA

The Abia state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Bonnie Iwuoha has said that the government was committed to creating jobs to alleviate poverty and reduce crime rate in the state.

 Iwuoha disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Aba on Monday.

He said that most crimes committed in the state were the result of idleness caused by unemployment of young people adding that crime would reduce if young people have jobs.

He assured that if Ikpeazu is allowed to remain in office, he would change the fate of Abia state and its people stressing that he had started revival of moribund industries in Abia.

Iwuoha said that the government was consciously working on some projects which when completed would employ a large number of Abia residents.

“Now those number of people as large as they would be when taken away from the unemployed group, will reduce the rate of criminal activities and there will be peace in Aba and Abia state.

“And Abia will experience peace because it is lack of job, what to do that drove so many of the young people into criminal activities. 

“So once they are gainfully employed, certainly they will sign-off all those illegal activities. So this is one of the ways the Abia state government through Ikpeazu is restoring life not just to Enyimba city but to the whole of Abia state”, Iwuoha said

He named some of the projects through which more citizens would be given jobs to include, International Glass Industries, Aba, Swiss International Enyimba hotels, Aba and Golden Guinea breweries, Umuahia.

“This is why we are appealing to all Abians, to politician and Nigerians to sheath their swords and support Dr Okezie Ikpeazu so that he can carry out that which God has put in him to do for Abians and for Nigerians”, he said.

Tricycle operators protest extortion by the police and army personnel in Aba

AUGUST 10, 2016

BY IJENDU IHEAKA

Tricycle operators on Tuesday staged a peaceful protest  against extortion of their members by the police and army personnel in Aba.

The tricycle operators told newsmen that police and army personnel were arresting them and disturbing their business if they refused to part with N50 or N100.

The protest which began on Obohia road moved to Cemetery road, Ngwa road, Mosque Street, Kent road and terminated at the Abia State Amalgamated Tricycle Operators Association (ASATOA) office on Ehi road.

The protesters carried placards which bore the following inscriptions: “No more N50 for police and N100 for army” “Monkey dey work Baboon dey chop must stop” “We do not want police army extortion again in Aba”.

They said that military personnel stop them at checkpoints and ask them to pay N100 as “security levy” while the police takes N50 at every check point from them.

Mr Nicholas Eke, a tricycle operator said the protest this morning began because “We do not like the way the police in Aba is maltreating and intimidating us, collecting N50 from Keke.

“They want us to carry only three persons. And for a route where we chage N50 per passenger, the total fare we collect per trip is N150.00.

Then the loaders will collect N20, the Police will collect N50 leaving the rider with N90 which would not be enough for them to buy fuel and get some reserve to meet their financial obligations”, he said.

Another operator, Chidiadi Amuchienwa, said “We are tired of the trouble the police and the army are giving us in Aba. We cannot work any day without them extorting money from us.

“They are making it seem as if we are working for them. This is getting worse every day and we want government to help us stop this evil.

“Many of our members have now had their tricycles taken back from them by the owners because they could not meet their daily agreement. This is the result of police and army harassment and extortion, it must end”, he said.

The Chairman, ASATOA, Mr Eugene Eze said that his team had worked hard to sustain a good rapport with the Police in Aba but regretted that the effort at making them “happy” seemed not to work.

“Go and inquire, there is no police station that we have been trying to have a good rapport with in Aba.

“But I am very disturbed by the trouble that they met out to our members resulting in complaints from members of the union every day.

“I want to tell you that governor has spoken of the radio played in tricycles. The government did not say you should not play radio but that you should not play it loudly enough to disturb others or hinder you from hearing the horn of other vehicles.

“But now the police in Aba have turned the directive into another thing. That is not good. I am saying this for them to know that I was present when the directive was given” he said.

He said that the group have sent him on an errand to go speak to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and the new State Commissioner of Police on their plight and promised to do their bidding.

He assured that he would effect the release of those members of the union who the police arrested this morning and urged the members to be peaceful while he makes effort to resolve the problem.

The protest brought the areas where they moved through in Aba under traffic gridlock, leaving passengers stranded on the road without vehicles to take them to their destinations while the protest lasted