Category: South East

The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) yesterday in Onitsha urged the Anambra State Government to embark on the prompt evacuation of heaps of garbage from all the dump sites across the state.

This is contained in a statement jointly signed by the CLO Chairman, Mr Vincent Ezekwueme, and the Secretary, Mr Chidi Mbah, and made available to reporters in Onitsha.

The group urged Governor Chukwuma Soludo to intervene and avert the health hazards and epidemic looming in Onitsha and its environs.

“We urge Governor Charles Soludo to expedite action toward evacuation and clearing of the garbage dump sites in various parts of the state.

“Clearing of waste bins and refuse is inevitable and ineluctable to avoid flooding, health hazards, erosion, obstruction, destruction of roads, blockage of drainage channels and roads due to torrential downpour currently at its peak,” they said.

The group made observations on the ongoing Onitsha clean-up and Urban Renewal Initiative and the level of compliance of the governor’s directive for the demolition of illegal structures on the drainage systems.

“We commend the political will and relentless efforts of Soludo to ensure a safe, secured, clean and habitable homeland.

“Notwithstanding, there are still refuse dump sites in various parts of the state that need immediate evacuation as they constitute a threat to lives and health of the citizenry,’’ the statement said.

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Ebonyi State has fixed today for the conduct of another round of the primary election to replace candidates who left the party ahead of next year’s general elections.

Ebonyi Chairman of APGA, Mr Ricky Okorouka, told reporters on Sunday in Abakaliki that candidates would be vying for seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives, among other positions.

“The elections will hold at the various secretariats of the party in the state.

“We have asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to monitor the exercise, “he said.

Okorouka urged members to be steadfast and to uphold party principles and ideology.

“We intend to replicate the Anambra experience in Ebonyi having chosen a formidable candidate for the 2023 governorship race,” he said.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar Prof. Florence Obi has assured that her administration will strive to complete the abandoned projects in the institution.

Prof. Obi gave the assurance yesterday in Calabar when she led the Pro-Chancellor of the institution, Gen. Martin Luther-Agwai, and other council members for an inspection tour of ongoing projects in the institution.

She said with the commitment and support of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), a majority of the abandoned projects will be completed during her administration.

“When I took over as the V-C, I promised that we were not going to be in a hurry to start new projects; but that we were going to be very anxious to complete the abandoned projects.

“As you can see, the Law Faculty building is a classical example, it was abandoned 10 years ago and today we have completed the project under my administration.

“As soon as school resume, Law students are expected to move into this new facility with modern classrooms, beautiful office spaces for lecturers and non-academic members of staff, good water system and recreational space.

“More so, under my administration, we have built many new pavilions with classroom infrastructure that are upstanding.

“We hope that with the support of TETFUND, we will be able to gradually complete all abandoned projects that we inherited,” she assured.

The V-C thereafter, handed over the complete keys of the Faculty of Law Building to the Dean of the faculty, Prof. Cyril Ndifon, to enable them to make use of the building.

The Pro-Chancellor, Gen. Luther-Agwai, said some of the abandoned projects in the university have become an eyesore.

According to him, one year down the line of the new administration in UNICAL, there has been tremendous improvement in infrastructural development in the institution.

He said the university was committed to working together with the Ministry of Education, TETFUND and the contractors in ensuring the timely completion of the projects.

“We will ensure that UNICAL becomes the first choice for parents to send their wards and children to,” he said.

Other projects inspected were the completed old audit building, hall 2 annexe, department of mass communication, engineering workshop, hostel accommodation, faculty of medicine, and faculty of education, among others.

The Anglican Communion women have urged Nigerians to vote according to their consciences in next year’s general election irrespective of any political party.

The women pleaded with politicians, political parties and supporters to be guided by a good sense of patriotism.

Their views were contained in an address presented at the 2022 Diocese on the Niger Women’s Conference through their President, Dr Nonyelum Nwokolo, in Onitsha, Anambra State.

The 108-page document presented by the women contained their worries about the level of bloodshed witnessed in the country, denouncing its continuation in the name of politics, ethnicity, religion or cultism.

They enjoined them to avoid selfishness as well as respect formal rules of politics.

They also appealed to the parties to give their supporters sound political education, encouraging them to obtain their Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) to vote according to their consciences at the elections.

“Nigerians, expect political parties and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to give us are free, fair and peaceful elections in next year’s general election,” they said.

They decried the current state of the country, attributing the incessant rise in insecurity, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike and hunger as major political and economic problems marring the country.

The women noted that almost every community in the country was under siege, seeking solutions to the challenges.

“As a result of the intensity and frequency of the killings going on all over Nigeria, the concerned women of this diocese passionately appeal to the Federal Government under President Mohammadu Buhari, to urgently devise feasible ways to end the attacks on innocent people of Nigeria.

“The President should do this with concrete evidence at least for one thing-to allay the fears of many Nigerians and the international community, proving them wrong that the killings are not ethnic cleansing, ‘Islamisation’ or ‘fulanisation’ hidden agenda of the government as currently being insinuated.”

The women noted that irrespective of the vast areas of fertile soil in the country with willing, able and available farmers, there was still no food for people to eat as the majority die daily of hunger and starvation.

“Farmlands all over the country today lay waste, uncultivated. Farmers no longer go to farms because according to them, killer Fulani herdsmen have taken over the farmlands, chasing farmers away.

“We, the women of this diocese, want to register our displeasure over the lingering ASUU-Federal Government face-off. Apart from the ongoing strike, we have had a series of the same experience in the past and the effects have never been anything good,” they said.

They further appealed to the Federal Government to give a listening ear to the demands of the university lecturers and do the needful.

Again, they urged the striking teachers to also consider altering their present position for the interest of the students, noting that “when two elephants fight, the grass suffers.”

THE National Population Commission (NPC) has commenced sensitisation and advocacy of local government area chairmen and other community stakeholders in order to achieve a smooth and successful trial census in Enugu state.

Speaking at Isi-Uzo LG headquarters during a stakeholders engagement for the three local government areas selected in Enugu East Senatorial zone (Isi-Uzo, Enugu North and Nkanu West), the federal commissioner representing Enugu state in the commission, Hon Ejike Eze said the commission visited the LGA chairmen and other stakeholders to brainstorm on the importance of census and how to achieve success during the trial exercise.

Eze said that NPC had intensified preparatory activities for the successful conduct of the first digital census in Nigeria.

According to him, the stakeholders’ engagement was to seek support of the whole community towards achieving good results during the trial and general census exercise.

He said the commission is working hard to ensure that it gets accurate data, stressing that accurate data would help in proper planning for development across the country.

“We are here to interact with the stakeholders of Enugu East Senatorial zone and seek support of everyone in the zone to carry out the trial census exercise diligently. The interaction will allow us to be on the right direction during the trial census.

“Census is important, it brings development and any country that wants to progress must have data and our national chairman deemed it necessary to conduct census,” he said.

The chairman of Isi-Uzo Local Government Area, Barr. Obiora Obeagu lauded the effort of NPC so far to conduct a credible and acceptable census.

Obeagu represented by deputy chairman, Hon Ugochukwu Nnamani, assured the support of the selected council areas during the trial census exercise.

He charged all the stakeholders to take the message home and educate their people on the importance of census, urging them to welcome the enumerators coming for the exercise.

IMO State Governor Hope Uzodimma has disclosed that his administration has spent over N100billion in two years on road infrastructure.

Uzodimma who disclosed this when he held a meeting with all the traditional rulers from the 27 local government areas of Imo state at the weekend, explained that Imo state government has spent over N100 billion on road infrastructure in the past two years of his administration which even his government does not have in its account.

However, the governor emphasised that this is made possible because the government in Imo state and that at the national are of the same party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Most importantly, he said, is his relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari who he said has given him the guarantee to do the roads.

The meeting with the traditional rulers was held at the Eze Imo palace at Mbari Owerri Imo state.

Uzodimma thanked the monarchs for their contributions so far towards peace, security and development in Imo State and regretted that in the process of their efforts for a better Imo society they have suffered humiliations and even deaths.

The governor reiterated that he has come to serve the people and to repair all the sectors that were rotten and damaged by past administrations in the areas of politics, civil service, education, health, roads, water supply among others.

He informed the monarchs that the rot in Imo state is nauseating, citing example of how government has been paying the salary to 6,500 secondary school teachers’ salaries every month whereas in the bio-data exercise carried out on July 7, 2022 government was only able to record 3,000 secondary school teachers.

Responding on behalf of the monarchs, the Chairman Imo State Council of Traditional Ruler, His Royal Majesty, Eze (Dr.) Emmanuel Okeke, thanked the governor for finding time to address them and promised to work in tandem with his government to flush out the criminals in Imo communities.

OVER N10 million worth of property have reportedly been razed by fire at the Diocesan Cathedral, Methodist Church Nigeria, Uzuakoli Diocese, Bende Local Government Area of Abia State.

The fire, it was gathered, started at about 2am, at Dodd’s Memorial Cathedral, Uzuakoli, after the end of a vigil by some congregants.

A witness said the inferno destroyed property of the church and important documents kept inside the bishop’s office and another adjoining office.

Speaking on the incident, the Bishop of Uzuakoli Methodist Diocese, Rt. Rev. (Dr) Anyanwu James Alozie, lamented the big loss his diocese suffered in the inferno.

The bishop, who conducted journalists round the burnt building, noted that the fire started at about 2am as a result of power surge, which occurred at his office, after power was restored in the area.

Bishop Alozie noted that different electronic appliances and various land documents, as well as church registers were burnt to ashes. He added that gold plates and cups used for Holy Communion and other valuables worth about N10 million also went up in flames.

“Everything in my office is completely burnt. Electronics, important documents, files and registers were all burnt.

“It was the efforts of church members and people from this community that stopped the fire from spreading to the altar and into the entire church hall,” the bishop said.

ANAMBRA state government owes some gratuities and not salary and pensions, The Nation has learnt.

The gratuities are gradually being settled by Governor Chukwuma Soludo and will soon become a thing of the past.

Confirming this development, the Anambra state Commissioner for Information and Enlightenment, Chief Paul Nwosu revealed that the gratuity was inherited from the past administration.

According to Nwosu,” the Prof Chukwuma Soludo administration is doing everything possible in making sure that the gratuities owed to workers are liquidated.

“A lot of things have been put in place to make sure that the gratuities are paid very soon. It’s not the fault of Soludo, rather, it was inherited from the immediate past administration,” he said.

THE sacked Ifitedunu Community leader, in Dunukofia local government area of Anambra State, Chief Uche Nwoye, has been reinstated by the governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo.

The President General was sacked by the former governor, Chief Willie Obiano, without any reason, which threw the community in chaos.

As a result, Chief Uche Nwoye has called on all aggrieved persons in the community to embrace peace and unite to attract development to the area.

Speaking with reporters yesterday Nwoye said all that happened in the past year that led to his unlawful removal from office should be swept under the carpet.

He appealed to all community members to embrace peace for unity, progress and development of the community.

According to him, “We need to live in peace as one body, no need for bickering. Our community needs unity, peace and development.”

Nwoye said that plans to invite all major stakeholders to a peace and conflict resolution was  being muted, while urging all to be calm with open mind for restoration of greater peace in Ifitedunu.

”I am a unifying tool to move Ifitedunu beyond its present status. We need to work as a team to project the beauty and cultural inheritance of our community to the world.

“Bickering over materialism will not take the community to the growth and development the youths are yawning for, our women and girls need skills acquisition and our men need to operate in a peaceful environment to achieve huge successes, “he said.

He denied the alleged closeness to Anambra Commissioner for Chieftaincy and Local Government, Mr Tony Nwabunwanne that worked for his reinstatement.

“This allegation is not near the truth at all, I was wrongly removed from office by former governor, Chief Willie Obiano.

“I was not invited by the government to query me over any misconduct, I read about my removal from social media and later it turned out to be true.”

The traditional ruler of the community, Dr Emeka Ilouno, in company of his community members paid a thank you visit to the governor on July 5.

Traditional ruler of Umunya in Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State, Igwe Kris Onyekwuleje has warned drug peddlers to stop destroying the youth in the Southeast with methamphitamine, popularly known as Mkpulummili.

He said many youths in the area had been ruined by the drug intake, urging them to desist forthwith for their interest.

Onyekwuleje spoke on Friday in Awka during the maiden edition of bloggers summit organised by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Anambra State Council.

He praised Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s approach to the insecurity in the state, saying he had restored hope of the people of the state known for very high entrepreneurial spirits.

He said,” I want to appeal to our youths to please stop destroying their lives with crystal methamphitamine ,”Mkpulummili’ This drugs can only destroy your lives and your future. You keep destroying your future with the intake and abuse of this killer drug.

‘Today many are seen roaming the streets mad, some in rehabilitation centres while some even dead. Too bad a situation!. For your own good and that of your family, please stop.

‘I am equally appealing to the consciences of those selling the drugs to retrace their steps. If they end up making the money will they spend it on an insane society?”

While decrying adverse effects of advent of android phones in the way people read and interpret news, the monarch charged journalists and bloggers to remain committed to their profession and shun the temptation of feeding the public with fake news.