Govt. set to review Abia Poly law, enthrone sustainable governance culture

By Ijendu Iheaka

February 13, 2017

The Abia Commissioner for Education, Prof Ikechi Mgboji, said on Tuesday that the law establishing the state polytechnic would be reviewed, to ensure the application of global best practices in education.

Mgboji said this while introducing the new Acting Rector, Prof. Ezionye Eboh, and the new Acting Registrar, Mrs Comfort Nwabughiogu, to the school community.

He said that the issues of bad administration and poor choices that had bedeviled the institution were being addressed to enthrone an enduring sustainable good governance culture.

“I want to work with the new management and the Abia House of Assembly to ensure that the law establishing this institution will be looked at.

“This is to ensure that best practices on how schools are governed will apply, so that by the time we are gone, whatever good ideas that we may have, will not go with us but will be part and parcel of the system.”

He said that in Canada, where he had lectured, students comprised one third of committees that take important decisions in the university, adding that he wanted to replicate same in Abia Polytechnic.

He also noted that the problem which grounded the polytechnic was created by staff of the institution, adding that a lasting solution could only be found by looking inwards.

“Records show that this is the most expensive polytechnic in the South-East. You pay heavy fees but you do not get value for money.”

He, however, informed the gathering that the governor had approved an emergency relief fund to pay two months’ salaries of staff.

But he warned that the government would not continue to give money for the payment of salaries of professors, lecturers and others.

“Even though it is not the duty of the governor to pay salaries of the teachers here; I bring you good news.

“The governor has approved an emergency relief fund to pay two months’ salaries.”

The commissioner identified some of the institution’s challenges as bloated work force and inefficient management of resources, adding that N30 million a month on overhead was too high.

“I believe that you do not need 95 security men; the school is all fenced up. In these days when you mount CCTV in home toilets, must you have 95 security men? Does it make sense to you? Must you have 44 or so staff in the bookstore? 

“Must you have pensionable workers in a canteen when you have decent “mamaput” sellers who will willingly for a fee come and sell to us the best food in the school?

“Why is it that they have 44 bank accounts even though we have only 25 banks in the country?

“Even you, as an individual, if you have 44 bank accounts will you know where all your money is?” he queried.

Mgboji urged students and staff of the polytechnic to support the effort of the governor to restore sanity and life to the school for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Tribunal grants APC candidate permission to make copies of council election results in Aba

By Ijendu Iheaka

February 13, 2017

The Aba South LG Election Petition Tribunal has ordered Abia State Electoral Commission (ABSIEC) to allow All Progressives Congress candidate, Dr Christian Okoli to inspect materials to pursue his case before the tribunal.

The order also mandated ABSIEC to allow him view and make copies of the December 21, 2017 council elections results in Aba South which shall be certified for him.

The Tribunal added that the permission should extend to viewing and making copies of qualifying documents of the candidates as well as the marked voters register used for the elections.

It further granted the APC candidate permission to serve ABSIEC and other 11 respondents including ABSIEC’s Chairman, Justice I. N. Akomas through substituted service.

Okoli went to the tribunal after Mr Emeruwa Ihuoma of the PDP who polled 38,009 was declared the winner of the December 21, 2017 council elections in Abia.

Although Okoli polled 7,015 to rank third after the Labour Party candidate, Mr Charles Meja who polled N9, 094, he (Okoli) claimed to have rightly won the election.

In an affidavit deposed to on by the Vice-Chairmanship candidate Chijioke Nwogu of Umuogele village in Aba South, he said that their party won the election but ABSIEC declared “by mistake or miscalculation another result”.

The order followed an Ex-Parte motion filed by Okoli’s lawyer, John Okoli-Akrika requesting the respondents, ABSIEC and 11 others to give the APC candidate permission view and make copies of the said documents.

Mr Okoli-Akrika had told the tribunal that the application was brought pursuant to section 36 of the 1999 Constitution.

The lawyer further averred that his petition was also in line with Section 190 of the Local Government Law of Abia State paragraph 40 and the 5th schedule to Abia local government law.

After listening to Okoli-Akrika’s arugument, the Chairman of the Tribunal Magistrate O.K. Onuma granted the request of the APC candidate.

Okoli-Akrika said that the APC had filed some applications and served the respondents earlier without any response from ABSIEC.

According to him, it was in the bid to quicken the trial process and remain within the 60 days given by law to process an election matter which necessitated the filing of the motion.

Gov. Ikpeazu approves salary structure implementation for ABSUTH

By Ijendu Iheaka

February 10, 2017 

Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia has approved  implementation of a new salary structure for workers of Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH) in Aba.

Mr Samuel Kalu, Secretary, Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Allied Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI), ABSUTH Chapter, made the disclosure in an interview with our reporter in Aba on Friday.

Kalu said the workers applauded Ikpeazu for approving the Consolidated Health Salary Structure and Consolidated Medical Salary Structure.

He said that the union’s struggle for the implementation of the salary scale in Abia began in 2011.

ABSUTH workers had embarked on strike on Dec. 19, 2016 to demand the implementation of new salary scale, payment of three years pension arrears to its pensioners and refund of cooperative deductions to staff.

He said that Ikpeazu’s good gesture toward ABSUTH had finally erased the six years of salary scale disparity existing within the institution.

Kalu also said the deductions had been released and the pensioners paid one month arrears pending verification to enable them get their pay cheques.

He therefore, urged staff of the institution who had not heard of the resumption to return and participate in the ongoing personnel audit to enable them get paid.

“We are grateful to Dr Okezie Ikpeazu for giving this approval. We are equally grateful to the Commissioner for Finance, Mr Obinna Oriaku, he is a good man.

“We equally thank our Chief Medical Director, who led us to that fight and pleaded greatly on behalf of the workforce. We are really grateful to them,” Kalu said.

Abia state has yet to show interest in completing Enyimba stadium - Contractor

By Ijendu Iheaka

February 6, 2017

Mr Ebi Egbe, Director, MoniMichelle Sports Facilities Construction ltd., contractor handling Enyimba Stadium in Aba, said the Abia Government had not shown interest in finishing the work on the stadium.

Egbe disclosed this in an interview with our reporter on Friday in Aba.

NAN recalls that Abia Sports Commissioner, Chief Chinwe Nwanganga, had on Thursday in Umuahia told the Abia Chapter of Sports Writers’ Association of Nigeria (SWAN) during an interactive forum to mark SWAN's 50 years anniversary that arrangements were on to complete the reconstruction work on the abandoned stadium.

Egbe said he was in Abia for talks with the government over the completion of the stadium a fortnight ago, but was disappointed as the promises made him were not fulfilled.

“My brother nothing is happening. Nothing. The Abia Government is not serious about the completion of Enyimba Stadium.

“If the stadium had been put in order, it would have generated a lot of money for Abia Government.

“Do you know how much money the state had lost since the stadium work started? If they could complete that stadium with 26,000 capacity, that is a very good source of IGR for the state.

“I have been going to Umuahia every week to meet them. What I get is one story today and another story tomorrow; my brother, I am tired. I will not lie to you,” he said.

The contractor said that time had passed when Nigerian politicians used completion of projects, at the end of their tenure, to get votes adding that Nigerians are becoming politically aware hence the need to complete the work urgently.

Egbe said the delay in the project would attract higher cost for completion because the job depended much on imported materials.

“A project that will cost you ten Naira today, if you let it delay for three years, when you come back to it, it will cost you fifty Naira.

“Our job is 90 per cent import-based. I started that job when the Euro was the equivalent of N272.00, but today it is N520.00 and that will impact on the final cost of the job.

“On my last visit, they said they wanted to give me N1.6 million, so I told them that the money cannot complete the job and that they should keep it when they have enough to do the work they should call me.

“It is not that I did not appreciate the money, I want to complete that job. I do not want a situation where they will give me N1 million today and it will take another four years before they can pay the rest. I don’t work like that,” he said.

Egbe said that in the last one month, the Abia Government has not contacted him while the finance and sports commissioners no longer respond to his phone calls.

“If they know what the Aba people are going through for not having that stadium ready, they will quickly fix it and bring Enyimba back home.

“When you play your matches outside your home ground, you will spend a minimum of N1 million which will go into payment for stadium, security, transportation and accommodation.

“They pay N1 million to N2 million everyday Enyimba plays a match away from home ground,” he said.

Abia lawyer condemn demand for repeat payment of 2016 income tax

 By Ijendu Iheaka

February 3, 2017

The immediate past Commissioner for Lands and Survey in Anambra State, Chief John Okoli-Akrika has condemned the demand for 2016 income tax from Abia state government from him.
 

Okoli-Akrika disclosed this to our reporter at the Chief Magistrate Court premises in Aba South Local government area where he appeared on behalf of a client.

Okoli-Akrika, a practicing lawyer in Aba, Abia State said that the Attorney General of Abia, Chief Ume Kalu denied issuing him a fiat (an order) alleging that he had not paid 2016 income tax in Abia.

The lawyer who complained bitterly said that the business of his client which required a fiat from the Attorney-General’s office was aborted because the office said he must pay Abia 2016 tax.

“I have been paying my taxes in Abia state until five years ago when I moved to Anambra due to my appointment. That was when I started paying there. And after my tenure I returned to my practice in Aba.

“I applied for a fiat to enable me prosecute a matter on behalf of a client. I have paid my taxes up to December 31, 2016 in Anambra state.

“I also attached my tax clearance certificate to the application for fiat. But quite surprisingly, I was called on phone and told that the Attorney General of Abia directed that I should pay 2016 tax again in Abia state”, he said.

The lawyer noted that he was stationed in Anambra state for a long time due to the nature of his job which also warranted that he should pay his tax in Anambra.

Okoli-Akrika wondered how Abia state government should ask him to pay for a tax regime he had been cleared of by Anambra state government.

“What I am saying is that there is every need for the various governments in the states and the federal government to synergize on matters of taxation.

“There are thousands of Nigerians out there, especially the low income earners and the down-trodden who are subjected to multiple taxation for everything. 

“You leave one local government to another, you pay tax. It remains for one to be asked to pay tax for air.  So why subject the citizens to multiple and unwarranted taxation”.

Okoli-Akrika questioned the payment of infrastructure tax in Abia state and asked that such a tax should be abolished especially when the government is not accounting for its use.

Efforts to reach the Attorney-General of Abia State, Chief Umeh Kalu failed as text messages and calls made to his phone were not responded to.

My former wife’s siblings murdered her over property, man tells court

By Ijendu Iheaka

February 1, 2017

An Aba-na-Ohazu Customary Court was on Wednesday  told how the siblings of Ifeoma Okpalanwa murdered her in order to have her property, and also abandoned her two children.

The former husband of the late woman, Obiora Okpalanwa also told the court the problems he had with his wife which resulted in the dissolution of their marriage.

Obiora Okpalanwa was in court, seeking the order of the court to give him custody of his two children.
He noted that the court gave custody of their children, Mmasinachi and Kamsiriochi to his former wife, Ifeoma.

“I noticed that after the dissolution of our marriage, Ifeoma, my former wife, started having problems with her family members.

“At a point she called me and pleaded with me to come and take the children from her because her siblings were planning evil against her.

“I thought that her plea was one of her gimmicks to draw my sympathy and attention to her until on June 19, 2015, when I got a distress call that her sister and her sister’s children have murdered her,” he said.

Okpalanwa told the court that it was the textile business Ifeoma was doing and making money that she used to buy a house where she lived with her sister and her sister’s children.

According to him, Ifeoma introduced her sister, at her request, into the business after which the woman and her children developed hatred for her and murdered her because of her property.

Okpalanwa said that he returned to the court to recover possession of his two female children, Mmasinachi and Kamsiriochi, because her wife’s siblings had abandoned them without care.

He further said: “the last time I saw them during the burial of their mother, they cried pleading to be taken away from the hardship and hatred they currently face in the village.

“And since I am the only surviving parent of the children, they are entitled to stay with me their father, now that their mother is late.”

The Magistrate, Diamond Olewengwa, upon careful consideration of the petition and the affidavit in support and oral testimony, said the respondent cannot be allowed to hang the matter indefinitely.

He said that since the lawyer for the respondent filed a counter affidavit but did not respond to the affidavit of the applicant, but opted for a transfer of the case to another court and did not complete the action, it showed they had withdrawn.

Olewengwa said that following the respondent’s lawyer’s inability to respond to the prayer of the applicant, it means that “they have succumbed to the prayer of the applicant.”

“I am of the view that since Ifeoma Ololo is now late, but Obiora Okpalanwa is alive, and is the only surviving parent of the two children, he is entitled to proper custody of his children and not any third party in whatever guise.

“It is, hereby, ordered that Mmasinachi and Kamsiriochukwu are to be in the custody of their father, Obiora Okpalanwa,” the court ruled.

Micro,Small and medium scale industrialists in Aba ask for closer ties with SON

 By Ijendu Iheaka

January 31, 2017

Some small scale industrialists in Aba have called for closer relationship with the Standards Organistion of Nigeria (SON) to enable them improve the standard of their products.

The industrialists made the call in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Aba on Tuesday.

They said that they had not been seeing SON staff in  their factories for supervision and stressed that the small industries needed the assistance and directives of the agency more than the big and established industries.

Chief Justin Eke, a furniture manufacturer, said that the smaller industries were not feeling the presence of SON in Aba.

“We know that they visit the bigger and well established companies, but for us here, we do not know about them; they do not even ask about us and they do not make their presence felt among us.

“But we know if we are taught and given the opportunity to strive, our products will qualify for export and we will boost the nation’s income.

“The small players today can be the big players of tomorrow,’’ he said.

Mr Godwin Charles, a garment manufacturer, said that he rarely heard of SON since he entered the garment industry five years ago.

He urged SON to make itself accessible to small scale industrialists.

” If they are around, our work will be better. There should be a relationship between SON and clothes makers in Aba and other small scale industrialists to enable us grow,’’ he said.

Mrs Chioma Okeagu, the Chief Executive of Commy-Benroll Enterprises in Aba, said that SON had never visited her factory.

She said that she went to look for them, but was discouraged by the amount of money they demanded to evaluate her work for proper standardization.

“The bill they are giving small scale industrialists scared me and made me swear not to visit them again until I have prepared myself.

“They said that we are going to pass various stages of tests which will cost us much money.

“They do not come, they do not visit us, but they should be in the field to help the small scale industrialists grow the quality of their products,’’ she said.