I'll enforce January 2019 deadline for drug control centres - Minister

January 26, 2018


By Ijendu Iheaka


The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, on Friday said he would start the enforcement of the Federal Government’s directive on drug control centres from January, 2019.

Adewole said that this step would end the sales and distribution of drugs outside designated drug marts in Nigeria.

The minister spoke in Aba at the ground breaking ceremony of the Abia State Wholesale Control Centre (CWC) for drugs.

He said that the final deadline for the enforcement had been fixed for January, 2019, saying that there would be no going back on the deadline.

“There will be no going back on the January, 2019 deadline.

“If we find anybody doing marketing or wholesale distribution in January, 2019, we will arrest and confiscate the product.

“For those who nurse the dream that there will be another CWC in Abia State, they should wake up from the dream, because there will be no other one.

“Please let us work together; do not write any petition to me again, because I will not read it and I will not do any business with the petition.

“I learnt that those writing petitions are using the soldiers. I will use the Generals and not soldiers. I will use the Minister of Defence, so that we will enforce the order.

“The directive came from the Presidential Committee on Pharmaceutical Sector Reform. We did not just wake up and say go to this place. It has presidential backing,’’ he said.

Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, said he was glad that the centre was being set up to identify those genuine drug dealers and stop the circulation of fake drugs.

The governor said the state government would ensure that all genuine drug dealers relocate to the centre on completion to create a safer drug distribution system in the state.

Ikpeazu, represented by his deputy, Sir Ude Oko-Chukwu, said that Abia would provide the needed facilities for the centre to function optimally.

The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Moji Adeyeye, said that the CWCs were meant to ensure regulated and organised drug distribution at four levels, with drug manufacturers at the apex.

Adeyeye said that NAFDAC would play its role to make the policy to succeed, urging drug dealers to play by the rules of the law for safety.

She was represented by Mr Ali Ibrahim, the Director, Pharmacovigilance and Post-marketing Surveillance.

Abia Education Commissioner vows to close substandard schools

By Ijendu Iheaka

 January 24, 2018 

The Commissioner of Education, Abia State, Prof. Ikechi Mgboji has restated his commitment to close all schools in the state which did not meet standard requirement for their operations.

Mgboji disclosed this while responding to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) inquiry concerning Pledy Academy Primary school, Umuode Aba which is located within a poultry environment.

The commissioner said that the ministry has set up a task force to enforce the rules and to bring culprits to book across the state.

He assured that once the task force which has started working gets to Pledy Academy Primary School, Umuode, Aba, it will be closed down for good.

He warned parents to be careful and check the schools where they send their children in order not to endanger the lives and academic future of such children.

When our reporter visited the school in the surburb of Umuode, Aba which its neighbours refer to as “uloakwukwo umuokuko” or "poultry school", a female teacher linked the Principal to speak to our reporter through phone.

Mr Ndudim Ogbonna who identified himself on the phone as the Principal of the school said that the “issue is that the school is an extension of Pledy Academy, Agburike, Aba.

“And the back of the school is blocked with cellophane material to cut off the poultry. The poultry is a big farm and even the entrepreneurship drive now shows that a school can have a fish pond for its entrepreneurship project.

“I wonder where the person who gave you that information is coming from. You are there so you can see things for yourself”.

He however said that Sanitary Inspectors who visit the school’s main location occasionally to check their environment have not visited the school’s extension.

Ogbonna said that Pledy Academy has paid Abia state Ministry of Education for the approval of the school’s extension but said that they were yet to visit the site which is located within poultry.

Our reporter who visited the school’s extension reports that during his stay, breeze was blowing fine chicken feathers to the classroom area from the poultry which was demarcated with cellophane material.

We will recover Nigeria through discipline, due process - Anyanwu

January 23, 2018
By Ijendu Iheaka

The National Chairman, Rebuild Nigeria Party (RBPN), Dr Japhet Anyanwu has said that the party is set to recover and make Nigeria great again through observing discipline and due processes in all its activities.

He said that it is only by embracing discipline and due process by individuals, institutions and parties that Nigeria could be set free from its bane which is corruption.

Anyanwu who disclosed during a media briefing in Aba on Tuesday said his new party is corrupt free and as such the party Nigerians need to come out of political slavery.

He said that his party, the Rebuild Nigeria Party has braced up to transform Nigeria's conditions through observance of strict discipline and application of due process in its activities.

"What the people decide is what will stand in our party. We are the only party that is using Option A4 to elect its officers and public office holders through its platform.

"We do not have place for godfathers and zoning formula; we also use direct primaries and not delegates to elect party's political office holders. Our party is the only corrupt free party in Nigeria.

"We are the only party that has given 50 percent opportunities to Nigerian women and youth to hold political positions. This is what makes our party the party Nigerians need to reach their intended destination", he said.

Anyanwu thanked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for registering with 21 others in December and giving Nigerians the opportunity to recover their country through it.

He said that the party which was being seen as a very veritable tool for changing the Nigerian condition has registered over 100, 000 persons online since its registration started.

Anyanwu called for more political consciousness among Nigerians to save the nation from its political misadventures and give the people a new lease on life.

LAC tasks FG on providing reformatory for under-aged offenders in Abia

January 23, 2018

By Ijendu Iheaka

The Legal Aid Counsel of Nigeria (LAC), has called on the Federal Government to build a reformatory in Abia to reduce the risk of young offenders turning hardened criminals in adult prisons.

The Abia State Coordinator, Legal Aid Counsel of Nigeria (LAC), Mrs Martha Egwu-Igu made the call in Aba on Tuesday during an interview with our reporter in Aba.

She noted that during a recent jail delivery by Justice Theresa Uzokwe, Abia State Chief Judge, some under-aged offenders were made to remain in adult prisons which had no place for them.

The LAC Coordinator said that mixing hardened adult criminals with young offenders in prisons would harden the impressionable young offenders and create criminals out of them later.

 “For the nursing mothers and children in the prison who are below the age of 18 years, they are not supposed to be kept in the prison with adults. 

“It has some social consequences we may not like in the future so something has to be done and done quickly too.

“My advice to the government is that government should release funds to build a very good reformatory where the under-aged will be kept instead of keeping them with the adults criminals in the prison cell.

“This is necessary because when you leave them to stay with the adults in the cells, they become more hardened and it will not augur well with them or society later on.

“So government should rather build a good reformatory where they can stay, be reformed and acquire skill so that when they come out, they will become good and useful citizens of Nigeria”, she said.

The State Coordinator said that LAC in Abia state has been working hard to ensure that inmates in the prisons in the state who are not supposed to be incarcerated are released on time.

Egwu-Igu said that LAC moves the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) to file information on accused persons and quicken their trial by filing bail applications for such individuals when DPP delays prosecution.

She promised to follow the directive of the Chief Judge, to file bail applications for 47 persons detained for alleged involvement in the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) clashes last September.

“The Chief Judge said we should file their bail application at the High Court. These IPOB people are charged for different offences.

“We will file their bail application according to the law. We are not interested in whether they are fighting for anything or not. What we know is that we owe them a duty by law defend them”, she said.

Emergency Communication Centres in 36 states to be ready soon - NCC

January 19, 2018 

By Ijendu Iheaka

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that it would soon complete its Emergency Communication Centres across the 36 states of the federation following a marching order it received.

The Director, Technical Standards, NCC, Dr Fidelis Onah disclosed this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the 90th Consumer Outreach Programme of NCC in Aba.

Onah said NCC was consulting with the National Security Adviser and state governors to ensure quick completion of the centres without unnecessary duplication in states that already have theirs.

He said that the centres which had gulped over N10 billion were intended to bridge the communication gap between different emergency response agencies in the country.

 Earlier in response to a question asked by Abia State Commissioner for Science and Technology, Chief Fabian Nwankwo, Onah said that research showed Telecom masts are not dangerous as thought.

He said that although they emit radiations, their radiation is not “ionized” adding that they are located following legal procedure after proper scrutiny by NCC and Ministry of Environment.

Onah also said that the problems state governments face with fee payment by Telcos results from the states’ fee structure which seem to duplicate the fees for the Telcos.

He therefore urged the states merge the different service fees charged the Telcos and give it one name to ensure it is made easy for the Telcos to pay.

Speaking at the event, The Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, (CAB) NCC, Mr Abdulahi Maikano said the forum was meant to bring Abia telecom stakeholders together to discuss and proffer solutions to their challenges.

He said the forum seeks to educate stakeholders on contemporary issues generating interest to consumers and to get feedback which would help in regulating the sector. 

Maikano represented by Deputy Director (CAB), Mr Ismaila Adedigba urged the Service Providers to provide consumers with various initiatives meant to protect, inform and educate them.

Stakeholders at the forum who asked questions received answers and direction to different desks for solution to their telecommunication challenges.(NAN)

IEI/

Heaven is more important to me than anything else -Ikpeazu

January 14, 2018


By Ijendu Iheaka

Gov Okezie Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia state on Sunday said that although being a governor is good, his earnest  desire is to go to heaven when Jesus Christ comes again.

Ikpeazu was speaking at the 2018 edition of the Seventh Day Adventist Church Eastern Nigerian Union (ENUC) Headquarters Conference prayer, fasting and evangelism summit in Aba.

The governor said that going to heaven was more important to him than anything on earth adding that even if he lost everything, he was sure his soul must meet God on the last day.

"You can have all kinds of problems. Sickness, want, need and challenges may come but know that all of them are designed to take your attention away from your redeemer who is coming soon.

"As all these things rage. The seas boil, the mountains melt, you should be consoled that holding the hands of one another we will take the last flight to go meet our maker in the clouds.

"This is very important so I really do not care whether things will get better today or tomorrow.

"I care that as things get more difficult here, the time for the return of our redeemer gets nearer", he said.

In his speech, the President, SDA, West Central Africa Division, Pastor Elie Weick-Dido said the summit was to address the church's needs in the last days.

He said that the church was preparing to reach out to the unbelievers with God’s word in preparation for the imminent return of Jesus Christ to take Christians home.

Weick-Dido said things would not get better in the world again and urged Christians to brace up and be more committed to God’s works to quicken the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

While speaking on the event, the President, Eastern Nigeria Union Conference (ENUC),said the programme was aimed at empowering its members for evangelism.

He said the church wants its members to do evangelism work wherever they found themselves.

Court dissolves 9-year-old marriage over lack of love, irreconcilable differences

January 12, 2018

By Ijendu Iheaka

An Aba-la-Ohazu Customary Court has dissolved the marriage between Benedicta Oforji (Nee Iheme), and her husband Chinatu Oforji on grounds of lack of love, abandonment and irreconcilable differences.

Dissolving the marriage, The Senior Magistrate, Diamond Olewengwa said that the court having heard the petitioner’s prayers which her husband did not controvert showed that he had accepted the dissolution.

Olewengwa added that Chinatu’s refusal to perform his conjugal rights for over two years and failure to reject Benedicta’s dissolution prayer showed that love which is vital in marriage was lacking.

“Having regard to the fact that it takes two consenting minds to be in a valid marriage, there must be a consensus for both sides to remain in the marriage. 

“And where both are seen to be lacking in agreement in the marriage, the logical leeway is to grant the prayer order sought by the petitioner.

“It is hereby ordered that the marriage contracted and existing between in March 2009 under the customs and tradition of Ulakwo, Enyiogwugwu in Owerri North LGA,Imo State,

“Having broken down irretrievably as a result of lack of love, abandonment, irreconcilable differences, stands hereby dissolved”.

Olewengwa therefore ordered Chinatu to collect the bride price he paid on Benedicta’s head through the court registrar.

He granted Benedicta continued custody of her adopted children, the freedom to revert to her maiden name - Iheme - and to give her adopted children her maiden name.

He said that the parties were free from any existing encumbrances, free to marry any other persons of their choice hence they should keep the peace as they go their separate ways.

Benedicta had told the court that her marriage had produced no issues except for the two adopted children and that her husband had hated her, refusing to make love to her for over two year now.

She said that Chinatu, her husband so hated her that he did not only refuse to make love to her for over two years now, but had also extended his hatred for her to her two adopted children.

Benedicta said that based on lack of love and the inhuman treatment from her husband who is from Umuokommiri, Obehie, Ukwa West LGA of Abia State, she wanted the marriage dissolved.

Traders call for improved infrastructure at Ariaria Market

 January 11, 2018

By Ijendu Iheaka

Ochendo Industrial market traders, an arm of Ariaria market, Aba have called on Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu to upgrade the market’s infrastructure in order to further strengthen its contribution to the state’s economy.

They also urged the governor to extend the ongoing rehabilitation of roads in Ariaria International market to their zone to enable them take out and bring in goods.

The Chairman of the Ochendo  Industrial market, Elder Kelechi Gabrial disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Aba on Thursday after governor Ikpeazu visited Ariaria market.

Gabriel noted that they have been cut off from major links in Ariaria by bad roads adding that the extension of the ongoing rehabilitation of roads in the market would enliven their businesses.

He said that the Ochendo leather parts market produces the raw materials used for the production of shoes, bags and belts in Aba hence its importance to leather producers.

He noted that leaving its road in the bad state it is now would be counter-productive and reduce the Aba leather product manufacturers’ daily output.

Gabriel urged the government to continue its campaign for made-in-Aba goods stressing that it would help improve the state’s internally generated revenue and create more jobs.

He expressed happiness at the increased infrastructural development going on in Aba and pledged the traders support for the governor’s second term bid.

Gabriel said Aba’s business environment needed to get an infrastructural boost to increase its productive capacity.