Otti's aide accuse Ikpeazu of poor performance

July 20, 2018


By Ijendu Iheaka


Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma, the Media Assistant to Dr Alex Otti, has accused the Abia Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, of  performing badly in office.

Ekeoma made the remark in Aba, Abia, Ekeoma saying Ikpeazu had performed abysmally and did not deserve to be re-elected.

Otti, a former banker, was the governorship candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance in the 2015 general elections in Abia at which Ikpeazu was elected.

Ekeoma accused the governor of feeding the people of Abia with propaganda and false claims on projects that did not exist.

“Otti has critically assessed the performance of Ikpeazu’s government and compared what the government has received in terms of funds with the projects executed.

“He has come to the conclusion that the government has performed abysmally.

“It is a verifiable fact that many civil servants in the state are owed up to 10 months salary arrears.

“Many health institutions in the state are lying comatose and the fact that you owe health workers about nine months salary arrears defeats every claim of achievements by the government, ” Ekeoma said.

He said the government’s inability to pay health workers had serious implications for healthcare delivery.

“When you owe health workers for nine months, then you do not have the moral right to expect them to attend to patients.

“People will die because the leadership wants it so. Our people are suffering. Ikpeazu has failed,” he said.

Ekeoma said that it was unfair that the  administration, which received N30 billion from the Paris Club refunds, not to pay workers.

He said although Ikpeazu had built a few roads, they were not worth celebrating because they were of poor quality.

“Look at Faulks Road, Aba, the government claimed that it is 4.6-km long and being built at the cost of N6.8 billion.

“What that means is that they are building a kilometre of the road with almost N1.4 billion.

“Again, they claimed the road is being built by a construction company called Setraco Heartland,” he said.

Ekeoma said there was no construction company called Setraco Heartland., adding: “What we have as a construction company is Setraco.”

He alleged that the governor “brought a mushroom company called Heartland, owned by his friends, hired equipment from Setraco and branded the company Setraco Heartland.”

Ekeoma faulted the quality of work on Faulks Road, leading to the popular Ariaria market.

According to him, the newly constructed drains   have not addressed the problem of flooding in the area.

In his reaction, the Commissioner for Information, Chief John Okiyi, described the allegations as “frivolous and baseless”.

Okiyi told our reporter in a telephone interview that Ikpeazu had worked tirelessly to redefine the socio-economic landscape of Abia.

He said that Heartland Construction Company was  a subsidiary of Setraco Nigeria Limited and that the governor had nothing to do with it.

“The company is fully registered as a subsidiary of Setraco and has been in existence long before Ikpeazu became governor.

“It is handling the reconstruction of the Port Harcourt Road in Aba and another project at Umuagu-Isingwu in Umuahia.

“Federal Government also uses it to execute its projects in the country,” Okiyi said.

The commissioner further denied that workers in the state were owed 10 months arrears of salaries.

He said that all the 67 Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government had been paid their May salaries, adding that the June salaries would be paid as soon as the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee impasse was resolved.

He said that the state only had issues with parastatal agencies, especially Abia Polytechnic, Aba.

He attributed the problem of  the polytechnic to the management’s inability to harness its huge internally generated revenue potential to augment  the government’s monthly subvention to ensure regular payment of salaries.

Okiyi said that government was making frantic efforts to clear the backlog of pensions and salary arrears, including the four months owed  secondary school teachers.

2015 elections: Olisa Metu has asked me for forgiveness - Dr Alex Oti

July 20, 2018

By Ijendu Iheaka

Dr Alex Oti on Friday in Aba allegd that the People Democratic Party Chairman, Olisa Metu has asked for his forgiveness for the role he played in ”stealing his mandate in 2015.

Oti who was the All People’s Grand Alliance (APGA) Abia state gubernatorial candidate during 2015 elections disclosed this during a party rally in Aba to announce his interest to contest in 2019.

He said that during the 2015 elections when PDP’s Theodore Orji saw that the numbers were favouring APGA, he went and took away the returning officer who on his return to the office changed the results.

“When we could not allow PDP to rig at the polling units, they went to write fake results and bring at the Collation Centre in Umuahia for Obigwa LGA which they gave 82,000 and Osisioma LGA which they gave 44, 000 votes.

“We discovered what they wanted to do and made contacts, they cancelled those local governments, then Olisa Metu and Theodore Orji broke into the collation centre, took the returning officer and intimidated him at gunpoint.

“The man panicked and reversed himself. If Metu is listening he would be surprised that I am calling his name but all that is history now because I have forgiven him.

“After that he met me at a burial in Lagos and told me that he knows that he is suffering today because of what he did to me in Abia and asked me to forgive him.

“He said he had done many things but that this one he did in Abia seem to have placed a curse on him. Then I said it is fine that I have forgiven him for apologizing to me”, he said.

He said he was going to contest for the Abia state seat again because the “Pharoahs of Abia state” must be forced to let Abians go free.

Oti urged Abia youths to ignore the story of division told by the PDP members to them and ensure that the electoral robbery that happened in 2015 in Abia state did not repeat.

In his speech, Senator Victor Umeh said that PDP robbed APGA and Otti of their mandates in 2015 but promised that such would not happen again.

He noted that Igboland must be made better through choice placement of respected and upright men and women into positions of political leadership in the zone.

He warned that unless Igbo people would be choosing respected and intelligent people to lead them, they would be loosing their rights as a people in the nation.

He urged Abia people to open their eyes in 2019 so as not to allow “the electoral robbery” which happened in the state in 2015 to repeat.

Rev. Augustine Ehiemere, the APGA Chairman for Abia state said that the party would fight in 2019 to have its stolen mandate in Abia restored.

He promised that APGA would bury godfatherism in Abia as it had done in Anambra to ensure that the state progressed like others in the South East.

Insurance coy dragged to court over alleged failure to pay N3m claims

July 18, 2018

By Ijendu Iheaka

The Standard Alliance Insurance Company has been dragged to an Abia State High Court in Aba over the company’s alleged refusal to pay N3 million to a client on maturity of his life insurance.

In the suit filed by Mr Okorie Mark, a businessman, he hinged his claim on alleged non-payment of “Income Protection Plan’’ with code number IPP/11/000638/ABA, which commenced in 2011.

The applicant in his statement of claims said that following the terms of the policy, the company was to pay him the money in July 2016 when the policy matured.

Mr Benjami Emeri, counsel to Mark said his client neither defaulted nor breached any terms of the policy with the company within its life span.

Emeri said it was established that his client in the process of purchasing the policy over paid the company by N100, 000, thereby bringing the total contribution to N3, 100, 000.

Counsel to the applicant had averred that a controversy arose when the applicant approached Mr Uche Ochemba, the Aba Branch Manager of the company for his claims.

Emeri said that following the controversy, Mark wrote a letter to the headquarters of the company on Dec. 21, 2017 through the Aba Branch Manager to further press for the payment of his claims, but got no response.

The counsel said the applicant also sent a reminder on the subject matter on March 15, 2018, and was told by the company that “your policy did not emanate from us” which necessitated the suit.

Emeri said the Standard Alliance Insurance, in its letter to the applicant, signed by the Head of its Legal Department and his deputy, Mr Kasoki Olekanma and Mrs Nkiruka Uzoechi, respectively disowned the policy.

The company in the letter said it could not accede to Mark’s request to be paid the assured sum of N3million when no policy existed.

The claimant’s counsel however said the company later asked for the receipts of the instrument, to ascertain the veracity of the claims.

He said the applicant had done as directed by the respondents, by sending all the evidence of payment directly to the company but they were yet to respond to his last letter.

The applicant is therefore seeking an order of court to compel the respondents to pay him the assured sum of N3 million with 10 per cent interest amounting to N3, 600, 000 until payment is completed.

He also prayed the court to order the company to pay him N10 million as damages.

The other respondents in the suit are listed as Johnson Chukwu, Chairman, Bode Akimboye, CEO, Bolaji Oladipo, Executive Director and Uche Ochemba, Aba Branch Manager.

The presiding judge, Justice Uche Enwereji, directed that the processes be served  on the respondents before  the next hearing date.

However, no date was fixed for the next hearing.

Nigeria needs planned population to reduce crime – Security Expert

July 16, 2018

By Ijendu Iheaka

Mr Osondu Mbonu, an Aba-based Security Consultant has called on the federal government to make conscious efforts to plan Nigeria’s population in order to reduce crime and criminality.

Mbonu who made the call in Aba on Monday during an interview with our reporter stressed that unplanned population raises crime rates.

He said that planning a population has many benefits which include fair sharing of resources, proper planning for citizens, job creation and empowerment and expansion of a nation’s economic base.

He said if Nigeria must check crime and criminality, it must plan its population in order to get the best from the huge population it has been endowed with.

“Planning a nation’s population enables the government to know areas prone to crime, to know the level of manpower needed in terms of law enforcement and security, where to post them and in what number.

“It also enables government to know when persons have come into a country’s borders or left their borders.

“Nigeria is said to be having the problem of herdsmen invasion from other countries partly because its population is not planned.

“So its porous borders makes its easy for people to infiltrate the country because no attention is given to the number of people at a given location at a time”, he said.

He said that population planning would benefit Nigeria because it would enable the nation to know the residents, their ages, qualifications, capacities, cultures, religions and how and in what area they could be gainfully engaged.

Mbonu noted that planning the population would help shore up the economy through gainful engagement of its labour force and to fight poverty through equitable allocate resources to the people.

He said that a government hoping to plan its population for optimal utilization and productivity must be willing to obey its laws and give to its citizens their constitutional rights for it to be rewarding.

Aba residents frown at planting Tenera Palm trees on Abia Streets

July 11, 2018


By Ijendu Iheaka

Some residents of Aba, a commercial town in Abia, have frowned at the planting of Tenera palm trees on streets and road medians in Abia cities by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The residents, who spoke with our reporter in separate interviews on Thursday in Aba, said some of the palms were dying, while the surviving ones would obstruct movement on the roads.

Mr Emmanuel Ebere, a resident said that the palm trees being planted on the street medians in Aba would cover the street sidewalks and disturb the movement of citizens when fully grown.

Ebere said that government should set aside land spaces to plant the palm trees to meet the target of planting about seven million Tenera palms within Aba town.

He said that the palm trees would constitute danger to humans and public utilities such as street lights if they were allowed to grow on street medians.

Another resident, Mrs Nkechinyere Oyibo said that the plan to plant the trees on such narrow roads was not proper as they would constitute nuisance to the road users.

She said the state government should have planted flowers that would not grow into huge trees on the road to beautify the streets.

She urged the government to reconsider its plan with a view to  stop planting those trees to save the residents the danger and challenge of contending with trees on the streets.

Godwin Ajuzie, a businessman said that even though he did not know the kind of tree being planted, government should plant the palms in only designated areas, not on roads.

He said that if government continued planting the palms where they were not supposed to be, they would die out of lack of nutrients.

He urged the state government to reconsider its decision to plant Tenera palms, adding that much of the effort would be a waste as many would not survive.

Obinna Uchenna, a driver said that he had seen the palms planted on the street medians and roadsides but did not think the idea was a wise one.

He expressed doubt over who would be taking care of the trees  when they start growing, adding that it was not right to have palms planted on road medians in the city.

He suggested that flowers be planted on the street medians and on roadsides, while Tenera palms should be given land spaces in farms to ensure they were well taken care of to grow to maturity.

Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu had last week told residents of Aba that he directed state officials to plant Tenera palm species on road medians and street sides to boost the state’s economic power.

Fund Nigerian HIV drug clinical test, inventor begs government

June 8, 2018

By Ijendu Iheaka

Prof Maduike Ezeibe has called on the Federal Government to provide funds for government hospitals and treatment centres to enable them to try out a new HIV drug invented by him.

Ezeibe, a lecturer in Veterinary Medicine Department of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Umuahia, made the call in a statement made available to our reporter in Aba.

The don thanked the government for accepting to verify his claims that his invention -Medicinal Synthetic Aluminum Magnesium Silicate (MSAMS), could  cure HIV.

He, however, said that funding the phase of the clinical trials of the drug required huge sums of money, so heavy that his salary alone could not afford  it.

” May I use this medium to appeal to the Ministry of Science and Technology to help process the application to TETFund so that the money could be released to my university for us to expand the clinical trial being presently financed with my salary.

“A dose of the medicine is only N71 per day and average treatment duration before cure is 10 months, which means that cost of the medicine for treating a patient would be about N21,300. 00.

“If cost for lab tests and cost for supportive therapies are added, cost for getting  a patient cured may be about  N40,000.

“Since TETFund  has a limit for funds it can give for any single project, it may not be able to fund treatment for more than 2,000 patients.

“So, I suggest that funds be made available to  medical centres/teaching hospitals of all Nigerian universities, medical centres of all research  institutes, all federal  medical centres and all military and paramilitary hospitals.

“This would help them try the medicine on at least 2,000  patients.

“That way, we may be able to test the medicine on at least 10 per cent of the over 3,200,000 HIV/AIDS patients in the country to be treated.

“This would give us enough data to prove to the world that Nigeria has invented cure for HIV/AIDS.”

Ezeibe thanked the ministers of Science and Technology and Health who constituted a joint inter-ministerial Committee to verify his claim and selecting his invention for grant award of N300,000.

He said he was grateful for the grant but noted that it was not enough to complete the very important clinical research needed to put the drug in the market.

The don also thanked Prof. Francis Otunta, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Sen. Theodore Orji and others who helped in getting government to accept his claim and to ask for further verification.

Replace flowers with tenera palms on Abia streets, Ikpeazu tells Abians

July 3, 2018

By Ijendu Iheaka

Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu has charged the people of Abia to replace flowering shrubs on the streets of the state with high-yielding Tenera species of palm trees.

Ikpeazu gave the charge at the Abia State Ministry of Agriculture Ahiaba Umueze Palm Nursery on Tuesday, while distributing two million seedlings to the citizens.

He said that the high-yielding palm species could produce over 15 palm bunches at once and would improve the economic fortunes of the people.

He said that he had directed that the palms be planted on street medians, adding that they were more economically productive than flowering shrubs, which he described as “useless’’.

He said that if the people of Abia would cultivate the Tenera palms in large quantity, it would provide jobs for the jobless youths.

He expressed the hope that every local government chairman, who would be given 40,000 seedlings each, would share them to all the farmers in their council areas.

The governor prayed that the seedlings would provide bountiful harvests and great benefits for those who would plant them.

Earlier, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Chief Uzo Azubuike said that the idea of boosting the state’s economy through agriculture was in response to the government’s policy thrust of making agriculture one of its pillars for development.

He said that the ministry was doing everything to ensure that the state government’s plan to instill confidence in all operators within the agricultural value chain in Abia was realised.

Azubuike said his ministry had pioneered mushroom farming in Abia, revolutionised poultry farming with three clusters of farms and bought equipment for mechanised agriculture for Abia farmers at subsidised rate.

He thanked the governor for the palm planting initiative and promised that his ministry would do everything to support his visions for the progress of Abians