The Nation Newspaper

Category: Southeast report

NDLEA arrests 85 suspects in Ebonyi

The Ebonyi State command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has announced the arrest of 85 suspects over drug-related offences. It also said 25 people have been convicted while 55kg of drugs have been seized in the first half of the year.

The Commander, Mr. Ralph Igwenagu said this at an event marking this year’s United Nations International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in the state.

He added that the command had equally counselled and discharged 35 drug users while three drug-dependent persons were being rehabilitated.

He enjoined parents and guardians whose children and wards were victims of drug abuse not to lose hope, instead, “such abusers and addicts should be brought to our office for the care, treatment and rehabilitation that they need”.

Aside being a major influencing factor for all forms of crimes and criminalities, the commander believed that youth’s involvement in drug abuse had brought about unprecedented breakdown in societal and family values, increase in school dropouts, low productivity and the spread of HIV and AIDS.

In his remarks, the Coordinator of Okposi Development Centre in Ohaozara Local Government Area, Chief Magnus Eze hinted that the global war against illicit drugs would make significant impact, if demands for it were drastically reduced.

He said this could be achieved through the provision of accurate information on the negative effects of drug abuse and its attendant consequences.

Mr Magnus urged Education planners across the country to embed drug education in the curricula of primary and secondary schools, even as the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Ebonyi state disclosed that the Agency counselled and discharged 35 drug users while three drug dependent persons were being rehabilitated in the first half of 2015.

According to Chief Eze who is also founder of Mezie Okposi, a non-governmental Organisation leading ethical revival in the state, “community support is extremely important to prevent, treat, rehabilitate and accept those addicted to substances. All hands must be on deck. Be a good role model and empower young people to deal with life challenges to stay away from substance abuse. We can achieve this by forming drug-free club in our schools and also making drug education part of the curricula of primary and secondary schools in Nigeria. Teenagers need to get the accurate and detailed information about substance use from a trusted and reliable adult – be it a parent or a teacher.”

Chief Eze further charged families, schools, civil society and faith-based organizations to do their part to rid their communities of drugs, while urging the Nigerian media to raise greater awareness about the dangers of narcotics.

The state police Commissioner of Police, Dikko Maigari, who was represented by Assistant Commissioner of Police Mathew Akinyosola cautioned Nigerian youth against involvement in drug abuse in view of its damaging effect on the body and the society.

He warned that the long arm of the law would always catch up with those involved in drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking.

Other speakers at the occasion were Bibian Okpoko, Comptroller of Prisons, Ebonyi State; and Richard Anichukwu, state coordinator, NAFDAC.

The theme of the celebration is: Let’s Develop Our Lives; Our Communities, Our Identities without Drugs.

July 3, 2015
Free medical services for Imo community

•A patient being examined

Over 3000 villagers suffering from various ailments, ranging from high blood pressure, diabetes, malaria, among others, have been given free medical treatment at Onicha Uboma community in Ihite Uboma Local Government Area of Imo State. Most of the recipients were old men and women.

Their benefactor was a non-governmental organisation, the Satellite Medical Foundation (SMF).

Before the intervention of the Foundation according to the President, Dr. Harold Onumo, scores of the villagers have died from treatable diseases as a result of ignorance.

So it was a huge relief for the sick and the old in the community as they filed out in large numbers to the free medical treatment. Most of them were diagnosed of several ailments and given treatment, while others with more serious cases were referred to the Foundation’s Clinic in Owerri, the Imo State capital.

According to the President, who is also the Medical Director, the gesture is a pilot community project, which embarks on free monthly medical services to rural communities using the mobile clinic.

He said that the mobile hospital, which is solely funded by the Foundation is moved to the communities where there are no hospitals or quality healthcare centers or access to genuine drugs.

Onumo disclosed further that the Foundation has given out hundreds of free medical cards to patients and has maintained a database of the benefitting patients for effective follow up treatments.

He said, “In the course of this outreach, we discovered that scores of people have died in the rural communities as a result of treatable ailments like hypertension, which is the major cause of stroke and heart attack. In most of the communities, these attacks are blamed on evil forces and this has not helped their condition.

”We have also discovered that ignorance and lack of access to genuine drugs and healthcare services have contributed to over 60% of deaths recorded in the rural areas. So it is our intension to extend the free medical care to other parts of the state but we are having constraints of funds and manpower. We are hoping to collaborate with related agencies to continue to extend these services to the rural communities in the state and beyond.

”Currently we have seven medical doctors in different fields, two pharmacists and two lab scientists and several Nurses in the team. We also have plans to establish a community health insurance scheme to enable the poor rural dwellers access quality medicare at little cost. This we hope to achieve by sponsoring an independent bill at the State House of Assembly”.

However, Dr Onumo lamented that the activities of the Foundation have been impeded by mounting challenges, which include, the high cost of developing capacity and manpower base to reach out to more communities, inadequate funding, among other challenges.

He stated that, “the challenge is enormous and it is becoming difficult to finance the activities of the Foundation alone. For instance we are not only involved in the direct treatment of ailments; we are also involved in counseling and advocacy on the kind of lifestyle that are permissible to diseases. We have in the past three years that the Foundation started, shared out over 10,000 treated mosquito nets to the people in the rural communities. The financial burden is quite enormous”.

Speaking on why he took up the burden of caring for the health need of the poor rural dwellers, the soft spoken medical practitioner, stated that, “my motivation is the my knowledge that many rural dwellers could not on their own access basic healthcare. When we started, people thought it was politically motivated but this is our own way of extending care and love to the poor people in the society”.

Commending the initiative, some of the beneficiaries appealed to the Foundation to sustain the programme and extend it to other villages.

73-year-old Mrs. Eunice Okeoma, who was diagnosed of diabetes, stated that, “I thank God for the doctors, before they came we have been suffering but now I have received free treatment and I am grateful to these people.

“Most of us suffer from hypertension and arthritis and we cannot travel the long distance to the city to get treatment and we don’t also have the money, so when the people came we thought that they were going to collect money so many people did not come out but when we found out that it was free, many people came out to be examined.

“Another other thing we love about them is the kind manner they attend to us, irrespective of the fact that we are not paying any money. Our prayer is that God will reward them and give them the power to continue to assist poor people”.

A community leader, Chief Paul Udodinma, said that, “before now we were dying of ignorance because we had blamed our fate on evil forces. Now we know that hypertension and other diseases that were afraid of are treatable. We thank members of the Foundation for this gesture”.

July 3, 2015
UNN teacher raises alarm on kidney disease

A consultant physician at the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof. Ifeoma Isabella Ulasi has called for regular nationwide screening to document the prevalence of non-communicable diseases in the country.

Ulasi, a nephrologist, said an effective screening project to cover all communities in Nigeria, similar to what obtains in countries like the USA, UK and Japan, would help check the rising cases of chronic kidney disease or CKD.

In a 145-page inaugural lecture titled “Kidney Solution: Nature or Nurture”, the medical practitioner submitted that a national policy framework carried out survey every five or ten years for the documentation of statistics on the epidemiology of non-communicable diseases, will go a long way in boosting government’s health reform plan.

She said Nigeria should have a national health bill, which must have renal care policy and transplantation act inculcated in it, stressing that awareness campaigns should be embarked upon by government or non-governmental agencies to educate the masses on the importance of screening and periodic medical checkup.

“Stakeholders at all levels, family heads, community leaders, local government, state and federal government should help to spread information on the dangers of the disease, since the world celebrates Kidney Day,” she said. “This platform can be used to our advantage.”

The scholar, who has been managing kidney patients at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital UNTH, Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu State since 1994, stressed that the campaign should target lifestyle factors that are within the individual’s control, as well as emphasize the importance of clean environment.

“Use of herbal medications, self-medication and consultation of non-qualified medical personnel should be discouraged, individuals should be encouraged to have routine medical check-up at times appropriate for their ages, the present practice where people come to hospital only when they are ill, obviously does not work for diseases like chronic kidney diseases, hypertension and cancer”, the 95th inaugural lecturer warned.

Ifeoma Ulasi, also suggested the establishment of well equipped primary health care units in every locality, adding that this was necessary to bring health care services nearer to the people.

She continued: “provision of basic amenities that foster primordial prevention of diseases, such as good sanitation, facilities that promote healthy living-gyms, etc, and thereby improve health determinants in the society should be given priority”.

While describing kidney diseases as a general term used for any disease condition involving the kidney that impairs in its function, the consultant physician explained that it could occur from a condition that affects the kidney primarily or from a condition that affects other parts of the body and secondarily affects the kidney, pointing out that it could also be acute, sub-acute or chronic, depending on its duration.

The renowned researcher also identified diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, cigarette smoking, obesity, high cholesterol, family history of kidney disease, being African-American, Native American or Asian-American as well as those up to the age of 65 and above, as some of the factors that might increase the risk of chronic kidney disease.

She also stated that prolonged anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) are also among the risk factors.

The vice chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof Chukwuma Ozumba, said that inaugural lecture was introduced in 1976 to encourage research and provide opportunity to the University professors to showcase their intellectual prowess.

The vice chancellor, who was represented on the occasion by the deputy vice chancellor, Enugu-Campus, Prof. Ifeoma Enemo, praised Prof. Ifeoma Ulasi, for organising screening recently for the University Community, including the secondary school, and described the gesture as visionary and worthy of emulation.

The event attracted the cream of the academia from within and outside the country, prominent among them were the chief medical director of Memfys hospital for Neurosurgery, Enugu, Prof. Sam Ohaegbulam, two former deputy vice chancellors of UNEC, Prof. Peter Ebigbo and Prof. Bede Ibe, former provost college of medicine Prof. Basden Onwubere and current provost, Prof. Ernest Onwasigwe and Prof. Uche Magafu, a former provost college of medicine, UNN.

Others were the dean of the faculty of medical sciences, Prof. Uche Nwagha, former deans of the faculty of health sciences and technology, Prof. Ngozi Onyemelukwe, and Prof. Obinna Onwujekwe, Dr. Uche Agu and Dr. Izuchukwu Okam both of the department of obstetrics and gynaecology, UNTH, Prof. Ifeoma Okoye, traditional rulers from Enugwu-Agidi and Nnewi in Anambra State and the clergy, as well as the former chairman of Nigeria medical association, NMA, Enugu State branch, Dr. Obinna Onodugo, who read the citation.

July 3, 2015
600 displaced in boundary clash

The Adadama/Ikwo boundary crisis in Ebonyi State has reared its ugly head again, leaving three dead and no fewer than 600 people displaced.

The renewed hostilities have led to questions as to whether the crisis will ever end.

Investigations by The Nation reveal that the crisis which started many decades ago was triggered by land dispute between the people of Adadama in Ani Local Government Area in Cross River State and their counterpart from Ochoenyim Amagu in Ikwo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

Successive governments have tried to find lasting peace to the crisis all to no avail.

Elders of the communities blame the flouting of the covenant entered into by both communities as the reason for the inability to resolve the dispute.

According to our investigations, ancestors of both communities had entered into a covenant not to invade each other’s community but the pact was long ago broken when they started attacking each other which led to the death of many people.

Yet another outbreak of the crisis was witnessed on 3rd June with about three lives lost. One indigene of Ochienyim was kidnapped, while scores were injured?

The traditional ruler of Amagu in Ikwo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Igwe Dominic Aloh alleged that the people of Adadama broke the covenant reached by their ancestors and invaded the land under dispute, killing raping and kidnapping his subjects and destroying properties and farmlands.

He spoke when the Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State visited the community.

Igwe Aloh recalled that when the people of Adadama first invaded the land and settled their many of them died and were taken back to their village where they were buried and wondered why the persistent invasion.

His words, “It is a long standing dispute and it has taken years. These started even before my own grandfather and a covenant was reached here between the Amagu people and Adadama people and since that time we have been respecting that covenant”.

“There was a point it reached, the people of Adadama invaded the place. Some years past, they came in and started settling there but surprisingly to them all those people that settled their died and when they died they were taken back to their original village. That shows that the covenant was strong”

“Many of our children and adults have been missing for many years and they were all captured by Adadama people, we never saw them till today. Whenever they show mercy after catching our women they are raped”.

“On the 3rd of June, they came around where our people safely farm, removed yams, cassava, corn and other crops. On the 4th when some of those people went to the area to see what really happened on the land that is not among the disputed one, they attacked them again. In the attack one person was killed and one person running away got drowned and they wounded one that is still in hospital”.

“On the 6th, these people came again, killed two of our sons and one is still missing”.

The renewed crisis has led to the displacement of at least 600 persons in the community majority of whom are women without shelter, refuge and food as they have to levy residents in order to carter for the displaced persons. The children of the affected women have also dropped out of school”.

“We have many refugees, we do not know how to continue feeding them. We have started making contributions from our people to feed them but it is not sufficient. Some of our men have been killed; they cut off their heads and enslave some of them. It is sacrilegious to cut off the head of your brother. It is a declaration of total war but I have so far been able to pacify my people not to retaliate because we know that the governor, Engr Dave Umahi is a peace-loving person and will not be happy if we do that.”

Village Head of Ochienyim village, Mr Peter Azuegu said the people of Adadama invaded their community and started shooting through one Nwanchor Ajah’s compound and overpowered the people there who were en-route to inform soldiers on the development

He appealed for government intervention so that the crisis could stop saying that they don’t want war adding that weeds have taken over their deserted homes.

On his part, the state deputy governor, Kelechi Igwe assured the displaced persons of government’s intervention.

The Deputy Governor lamented the condition of the displaced persons who are currently not having homes, shelter and food to eat even as he promised that the government of Engr Dave Umahi would not seat back and watch the people of Ebonyi State suffer in the hands of external aggressors.

July 3, 2015
Fed Govt should initiate creative writing workshops

The traditional ruler of Ndikelionwu community in Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuemeka Ike has advocated public reading of literary works to encourage creative writing among youths.

The renowned writer and former Registrar of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) said such approach to literary works will broaden the country’s leadership options, arguing that the brain power of writers can be a huge advantage in tackling natiomnal challenges.

Also, a lecturer at the Department of English, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Dr. Florence Orabueze said the Federal Government should initiate creative writing workshops from elementary to tertiary institutions and provide the facility needed to publish works of best brains from schools.

Both spoke at the workshop organised in partnership with Prof. Ezenwa Ohaeto Resource Centre in Awka in a lecture whose theme was “Language and Literature as tools for social reconstruction; an evaluation of Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ and ‘Arrow of God’ .

It was a literary workshop organised by the National Association of Students of English and Literary Studies (NASELS), Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka chapter.

The prolific writer cum traditional ruler of Ndikelionwu community in Orumba North Local Council Area of Anambra, said that works of literature were ready tools for changing any society.

According to him, public readings would encourage people to listen to good literature which was helpful for the society because the writer would write about the society and how to correct its ills.

“We have brain power which we have not recognised to save the country. The literary creativity is one important tool in transmitting the proper culture needed to build confidence and restructure the country”

Dr Florence Orabueze of the Department of English, University of Nigeria (UNN), extolled the contributions of late Prof. Chinua Achebe to African and world literature.

She praised Achebe for what she described as his “hybridisation of Igbo and English language in communicating the experience of Africans during the colonial era.

“We as literary artists should not accept neo-colonialism or domination from any group.

“We should encourage our children to speak their mother tongue and feel the lacuna of corruption, decayed infrastructure and loss of identity through our literary works,” she said.

However, the Chief Executive Officer of late Prof. Ezenwa Ohaeto Resource Centre, Dr Ngozi Ohaeto, said that the library decided to partner the students for the workshop to promote literary creativity.

Ohaeto said that the centre aims at providing education materials for life through mentoring, tutoring and inspiring writers of younger generations.

The Head of Department, English and Literary Studies, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Prof. Stella Ekpe, charged the students to see their course of study as call to duty.

Represented by Prof. Afam Ebogwu, Ekpe further urged them to realise the need to see their discipline as different from other disciplines.

The NASELS president in the institution, Mr. Triumph Okorocha, explained that the workshop was aimed at exposing and correcting the ills in society through the creative writings of students.

According to him, “The workshop is an avenue for students who represent the younger generation of writers to learn under the guidance of more experienced writers.”

July 3, 2015
Grandma among paraded suspects in Aba

The police in Abia State have paraded three suspected members of a robbery gang allegedly specialising in dispossessing victims of their cars and other valuables.

Two women have also been nabbed in the kidnap of a baby only a few weeks old. One of the suspects is said to be a grandmother, the other her daughter.

The male suspects Promise Sunday, two commercial motorcyclists Uche Nwachukwu and Ugochukwu Okoro, both of Mgbarakuma village in Umuahia South Local Government Area of the state were arrested and brought to the Ubakala Police Station by soldiers after they allegedly robbed two female victims.

The gang was said to have collected from their victim a handbag containing clothing valued at N27,500, shoes valued N7,500, necklace and earrings valued at N1,700, cream and perfume valued N2,000, one Samsung Galaxy X4, two Tecno phone valued N40,000, two Nokia phones valued N9,000, totalling N79,700.

The victims who names were given as Jenifer Ekpeme of Okpuala Ngwa and Tochi Ngwaba of Umuode both in Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area were said to have engaged the services of Promise Sunday and Uche Nwachukwu not knowing that the duo had evil intention against them.

The Commissioner of Police, Joshiak Habila who spoke through the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Ezekiel Onyeke said that the suspects were followed by Ugochukwu Okoro in another motorcycle as he later joined his friends to rob the victims after brandishing machete and threatened to cut them to sizes if they refuses to cooperate with them.

Onyeke said luck ran out on the gang when detectives from Ubakala Police station swooped on them.

According to Onyeke, the police team was able to recover from the gang, three out of the four phones, necklace/earring, perfume/pomade, two machetes, three motorcycles, one Army face cap, one LG TV, one Sony/LG DVD, one Kenwood deck, two speakers and one standing fan.

He said that investigation into the matter were still ongoing.

In another development, two women whose names were yet to be obtained as at the time of this report, have been arrested at Umunna Nsulu in Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area of the state by the police.

The women, according to reports, were arrested by police over the role the grandmother and her daughter played in an alleged abduction of a week old baby by yet to be identified abductors.

The initial report was that unknown gunmen attacked the resident of the family to abduct the baby after the mother had allegedly lost one of her children during childbirth.

According to a source who pleaded anonymous, “The situation in the first instance attracted pity by members of the community but the women shot themselves in the foot when they told police that they raised alarm which the people living around their house countered. Because, according to them, there is no way that the two women could have raised alarm without members of the family not being aware.

“In fact, a member of the kinsmen had claimed that the women were overheard making arrangements for a shop before the incident happened which raised suspicions that they connived with the abductors to sell the baby”.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Onyeke in a telephone chat confirmed the incident though he said he was out of the state on official assignment.

According the PPRO, who said he was yet to be properly briefed on the matter by the divisional police in whose jurisdiction the incident happened, added that the matter and the suspects have been transferred to the state CID for further investigation into the matter.

July 3, 2015
Hope for decaying historical town

It has a robust history and influential people, but Afikpo, Ebonyi State’s second largest town, has since fallen into infrastructural decay. OGOCHUKWU ANIOKE reports that there is hope of a comeback

Afikpo has enough to wow anyone: a rich history, being an ancient centre of Igbo tradition, and a large pool of influential leaders, one of whom the late Dr Akanu Ibiam, former Premier of Eastern Nigeria. Yet, its decay is as legendary as its illustrious products and past.

The ancient town is noted the world over for producing great leaders, academicians, businessmen and technocrats, among others.

Situated in the southern part of Ebonyi State, Afikpo, is the second largest city in the state. It is believed that Afikpo civilisation existed as far back as the Neolithic Age. It is also said that Afikpo was one of the first towns in eastern Nigeria to be reached by the colonialists. Little wonder Dr Ibiam was one of the first indigenous medical doctors in the country.

One would think that such a renowned town with illustrious personalities and rich history would have advanced greatly in the area of infrastructure.

Not so. Whatever Afikpo gained over the ages seems to have diminished, except, mercifully, the fact of its people’s personal achievements.

A visit to the ancient town attests to the fact that it has suffered neglect. Dilapidated infrastructures, where they exist, are a write-off. There are huge gully erosion sites and potholes everywhere, becoming death traps. Public convenience rooms have collapsed.

One woman is hopeful, however, that the city is not beyond redemption and that people can help it climb back to life. She is Maria Ude Nwachi popularly known as Nwanyi Afikpo, a top businesswoman and politician. In the last elections, Nwachi was voted overwhelmingly by the people of Afikpo North East Constituency to represent them in the state House of Assembly. She was been sworn in and already the people have started to feel the impact of her people oriented representation.

Recently she embarked on a tour of some of these dilapidated sights in the area.

Appalled by the sorry state of infrastructure in her constituency, she has started to repair many of them on her own instead of waiting for government.

She said: “I went out with my team to see where we can start our journey of turning Afikpo into a first world town. We decided to deal with the gullies that are nothing but death traps. These disgusting gullies have been an albatross to my people for decades. It is over. We are rejecting such eye-sore. We are going to fix it and put rails so that if a motorist has a mishap, he doesn’t end it dead or mortally wounded by falling into the gullies.”

“Without fixing this, our beautification project will come to nil. And we cannot let that happen. Then we are going to fix repair the roads from Local Government office to Eke Market round about. Then head to Amangbala round about and then to Egesco for now. The next phase of road repairs will follow soon after.”

“The most tear-inducing thing I saw today is the toilets for Eke Market. It was disgracefully bad and so unhealthy. Looks like what I do not know and understand. Words fail me. Oh God, my people have suffered. Well I am going to build a world standard toilet facility for our Eke Market. It is going to be even more beautiful than what is obtained in civilized world. I will see to it. Enough is enough. The building of this first class toilet will start this month.”

“We will also fix the drainage system in the market and the roads we are retouching and beautifying for without that there will still be a problem. So much to do, I am ready because it is all about making sure Governance works the way it was meant to work, which is to lessen the burden of those being governed and to make their lives as easy possible. I will continue to serve myself last. As should be the case for those elected to serve, so this country can also one day become a first world nation.

“There is so much I am about to do. Also, Afikpo Beautification Project team and staff, whose duty it is to sweep Afikpo and keep it looking beautiful, will start work in a few weeks.”

•Nwachi’s team at the Oziza Road erosion site

She also visited Oziza Road where a gully has claimed many lives. Nwachi promised to start work there soon.

“When the road leading to Ozizza was constructed, the company involved neglected to properly handle Ogbordor bridge in Mater road, this costly error in judgment, extreme incompetence and callous carelessness is engendering the lives of those plying the road daily.

Many have already been sent to their early graves. We went there last week with an indigenous company to look at it, tell us the way forward and cost implications; and to be sure we have all bases covered, we also invited a foreign company there too to do the same.

“We have decided on which company will best do the job for us and will start work there this month. At the mean time we would put some danger signs around the area so that motorists and cyclists do not fall victim to this deadly erosion gully”.

She also appealed to the people to be patient and support the government of Chief Dave Umahi who she said has a lot of good things in stock for the people of Afikpo which he will unveil as the dire financial situation of the state government which the governor inherited improves.

Reacting to the actions of the Lawmaker, a resident of the city, Mr Ekoh Isaac commended the Mrs Maria for her vision and determination to uplift the living standards of her constituents and charged other lected leaders to emulate her.

“There is hadly any lawmaker whether state of federal that has even gone to assess developmental problems in Afikpo talk more of thinking of the solutions. God will give you all it takes to do the job. We are sure you have a good heart towards Afikpo people, more powers to your elbows”

Another resident resident Mr Charles Otu urged other elected leaders to strive to change the lives of the people.

He said: “ If all elected political office holders will be as selfless as Nwanyi Afikpo the Ebonyi State and Nigeria will be a world leader in a short time. Being a member of the legislature is not only about making laws but also about touching the lives of the people and I have no doubt that Mrs Nwachi will excell in both areas because she has been at the forefront of uplifting the lives of the people even before she became a lawmaker. That is why she was voted in overwhelmingly despite running under the platform of the opposition Poeples Pregressive Alliance (PPA)”.

July 3, 2015
NGO threatens to withdraw facility over rent

A free annual medical outreach in Amachara, a community in Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State may be withdrawn by the non-governmental organisation which administers it.

Why? The NGO, Chike and Chinyere Onyekwere Foundation said the community is insisting on collecting rent on the space used by the foundation.

The NGO was said to have spent up to N15m in medication and services given free to the residents in four years.

Speaking with The Nation on the telephone, the chairman of the organisation, Chikeziri Onyekwere said that it is absurd that the elders of the community who have been receiving free medical care from his foundation for over four years are asking him to pay rent for using the town hall for the facility.

Onyekwere said that since he started the programme for the people of his community, he has never asked any of the patients to pay for the health care treatment they have been receiving, “It is not as if we are making money from this venture and if they insist on collecting rent from me, then I will withdraw the facility from them”.

He said that the free medical facility was established way back in 2013 to give 100% free medical facility to persons under the age of 50 years and above, including children, adding that he decided to give the facility to the people because of the high death rate on the old people and children.

The NGO boss said that all the patients who come there for treatment are given free medicine as well without asking them for money, “Our own free medical scheme includes free drugs and the drugs we do not have we ask them to come back for it and not to go out to source for them”.

Onyekwere said that the NGO decided to run the free medical care for the people of the area, “Because we believe that there is need to compliment the efforts of the state government to ensure that the citizenry and now the elders of the community want to charge rent from us for using the town hall which is discouraging and unacceptable in all ramifications”.

He noted that the free medical service has treated about 7,000 patients with different ailments and that it has been personally financed with the resources from his family, adding that there has never been any foreign or local aid and called on the people to support them with prayers, as what he is doing is one of the ways he wants to give back to his community.

Onyekwere explained that the free medical scheme has succeeded in handling cases of patients who in normal circumstances are not aware of the potential life-threatening diseases they have and could not afford the money to finance their medical treatment.

He said that he also has about 20 students from the area in his scholarship scheme, saying, “I want to give a voice to the less privileged, not a voice to oppose government or anyone but a voice to live a meaningful life in the society”.

In his reaction the traditional ruler of Umuokorodo, HRH Eze Akpunku Iheuwa said that the people of the community appreciated the gesture of the free medical services of the NGO, but that they have decided to charge rent on the space used in the civic centre hall because they believed that the NGO was winning foreign financial assistance with the programme.

Eze Iheuwa said that the community has decided to relocate the free medical scheme centre to a two bedroom apartment behind the civic centre premises and insisted that the NGO must pay rent for the accommodation.

In his own speech the chairman Amachara Welfare Association [AWA], Sunday Andrew said that the community was working hard to complete the construction work on the two bedroom apartment behind the civic centre hall so that the free health care service will be relocated.

Andrew acknowledged that fact that the presence of the free medical scheme has helped in no small way to reduce the rate of death among the aged and children in the community.

“However we must relocate the scheme to allow other activities of the community at the civic centre”.

July 3, 2015
Brewery stocks school

The Nigerian Breweries Plc has rehabilitated and stocked a school library in Aba, Abia State. The brewers, through the Felix Ohiwerei Trust Fund, rebuilt and equipped the facility at Boys Technical College (BTC), Osusu Aba.

The gesture brought relief to the school and the community.

Through the Ohiwerei foundation many communities in Aba and such nearby settlements as Osokwa and Abayi, among others, have benefitted from the NBL project.

NBL Plc has donated classroom blocks and equipped libraries in their host communities with various textbooks and other facilities.

The result has been remarkable. Learning has improved, with pupils having more materials to study and in a convenient environment.

It is a huge departure from what used to be. Schools often lacked basic infrastructure, a development that impacted negatively on the performance of pupils.

However, in what seems to be a continued effort to further extend its service to Aba and Abia residents, NB Plc has yet singlehandedly refurbished and handed over a fully equipped modern library facility to the authority of Boys Technical College (BTC), Osusu Aba, Abia State.

BTC is one of the technical schools in the southeast and Abia State where youths with various or no skill but have interest in fabrication and other craft are trained and equipped with the requisite knowledge to be self employed at the completion of their secondary school programme even if they don’t want to further their education.

Speaking at the handover of the refurbished library, furniture and textbooks which attracted the presence of students, teachers and other management staff of BTC and NB Plc, Aba Brewery manager, Mr. Udah Ukeje said that the event was also used to mark the 2015 “Brewing a better World” (BaBW) project.

Udah who was represented by Lolu Ogunkeye, head brewer, Aba brewery happing on the gains of education to the society stated that the company would never relent in its resolve to continue assisting the state and federal government in giving education a facelift.

Ogunkeye, reiterating the importance of technical education which students of the secondary school were being exposed to, noted that the economic development of Nigeria would be on the increase and unemployment reduced drastically if special attention would be given to technical.

Ogunkeye was optimistic that the refurbished library would enhance teaching and learning among teachers and students in the institution.

“We believe that if we upgrade the school’s library it will go a long way [in empowering] the students to become better human beings and better future leaders, and that for us, is the foundation, because with knowledge, we will be able to do a lot more things”, Ogunkeye said.

In his response, BTC principal, G.O. Nnamdi said he was excited over the project and thanked the management of NB plc for selecting their school as one of the schools that would benefit from their educational pet project.

Nnamdi who promised to secure and put the donated items into good, used the opportunity to beckon on NB plc and other corporate organizations and well-meaning individuals in the commercial town and the state at large to come and help the school by providing them with technical education facilities and to complete the perimeter fencing of the school which he said would help them to secure the donated facilities from being carted away by hoodlums.

Nnamdi said, “We have a lot of problems in this school, and we are happy that you have solved one of them, which is the library. We have a porous environment, our school needs fencing. We need also equipment in the workshop as well as electricity”.

A senior staff at the State Secondary School Management Board (SEMB), Aba zone, Mr. Eugene Uzoma Nwaoha Nigerian Breweries plc has invested wisely into the future of Abia children and has also assisted Abia State Government in providing infrastructure in public schools in the State.

While calling on the brewing company not to relent in their efforts in patterning with the state government to continue giving education a facelift in the state urged other organizations in the state to emulate the good steps of NB plc who have made education a priority in the Corporate Social responsibility.

“If you go to some public schools in the state, like Ngwa High School and Osokwa Secondary School, you will see very magnificent class-room blocks, built and equipped by the Nigerian Breweries plc, and it has been so wonderful, because NB plc is not the only company in Aba, there are so many other companies that make money from this city and none of them has shown this type of interest in the education sector and I want to ask them to queue into the steps taken so far by NB plc”.

July 3, 2015
Drivers, residents urge Buhari to rebuild federal roads

Residents and commercial bus drivers in Aba, Abia State, have urged President Muhammadu Buahri to rebuild the collapsed federal roads not only in the state but also the entire region.

Not only are the roads broken up in several parts and riddled with potholes; they are nearly impassable when it rains. Those who brave it, have tales of woe.

Some residents and commercial bus drivers who spoke with our correspondent in Aba, the commercial nerve of the region on Tuesday, lamented that most federal roads in the city and other parts of southeast can only be described as death traps.

They said that if nothing was urgently done, the Southeast especially Aba may soon be cut off from other parts of the country.

Checks on Tuesday revealed that out of the three major roads, Aba-Ikot Ekpene Expressway, Port Harcourt Road and the Osisioma axis that connect the city centre to other parts of the region and the Southsouth, the best is the Osisioma axis, even though it is not in the best of shapes. It serves as the major entrance and exit route for private and commercial vehicles including articulated trucks.

The Nation can authoritatively report that the heavy influx of vehicles into the city centre through the Osisioma axis usually results to heavy gridlock on the road and one may spend more hours on the road at the slightest drop of rain.

Residents and business owners who regretted that their repeated appeals and SOS calls to the last administrations at state and federal on their plight failed on deaf ears feared that economic and business activities in the commercial city would crumble if President Buhari and Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration fails to reach an understanding on how to partner with each other to tackle and bring to an end the sufferings of commuters and other road users in the state to an end.

A commercial motorist plying from Aba to Akwa Ibom State who gave his name as Ifeanyi in a chat with The Nation said that they now use rural roads in Obingwa Local Government to and fro Aba and no thanks to some youths of the communities who always compel them to pay toll fess for using their village roads.

“I am sure that you might not have traveled to UYO, Akwa Ibom State recently. You need to go to Akwa Ibom through Aba-Ikot Ekpene expressway and see for yourself what drivers are passing through there on a daily basis. We keep patronizing mechanics every week repairing one thing or the other. The only route we now is to find a bit motorable is the village roads, but the youths are also feeding fat on the road. We pay as much as N100 and at some point, we pay N50 and this is to and fro Aba to Akwa Ibom.

“We are urging the federal and state government to collaborate and do something about the ugly nature of roads liking Aba with Akwa Ibom and other states, if not any other thing, to save us from these youths who are taken advantage of the bad road to exploit us. Aba is a commercial city that attracts traders from different parts of the country and Africa and so therefore, roads linking the city to other state should not be allowed to degenerate so badly as it is today”.

•A tricycle on Port Harcourt Road, Aba

Another commercial bus driver plying Aba-Port Harcourt, Chima Okorie narrating his experience asked the federal government to declare state of emergency on Aba roads.

Okorie who said he spent nearly 3hrs one of the days last week from Milverton by Asa road to Osisioma because it rained on that day stated that the need for the reconstruction and total repair of all exit routes in Aba cannot be overemphasized, stressing that if the incumbent Governor, Victor Okezie Ikpeazu would be able to fulfill his campaign promises of building more roads and overhead bridges, it was help to decongest the city of heavy trucks that ply on the intra-city roads on daily basis.

“All we want is for the federal and state government to partner and build more roads. Governor Victor Okezie Ikpeazu promised to build more roads and tackle the problem of traffic congestion in Aba. Let them see ways to divert some of the big trucks that come into Aba before going to places like Calabar, Akwa Ibom, Rivers State and other parts of the country from coming into Aba. It will help to avoid the roads from spoiling easily and as such reduce the constant repair of roads.”

A journey from Milverton to Flyover which normally cost N70 now costs between N120 to N140 and could rise to N200 if rain falls.

A resident of Ude Nwanyi by Port Harcourt Road, Mr. Kingsley Offor said that the situation could sometimes get worse that they have to trek home from Milverton because some of the tricycle drivers would not want “to go beyond no. 1 Port Harcourt road because they either do not want to be held in traffic or get their tricycle trapped in the water.

“If there are people who will pray to God and God will answer their prayers, we living at Port Harcourt road will always pray for dry season throughout the year. That is the only time we can to an extent go home comfortably. Government should please look into our case. The past governor of the state and the past president could not do anything to ameliorate our situation and we hope that the story will not be the same now that Dr. Victor Okezie Ikpeazu and president Buhari are in power.

I also believe that despite their political party difference, that they should consider the plight of Aba residents as Nigerians who are in dire need of both the presence of government at the state and federal level. Aba is an economic city that has and is still attracting investors and buyers from all over the world and should not be allowed to degenerate badly, Offor cried out passionately.

It could be recalled that the administration of Governor Ikpeazu had flagged off the reconstruction of 7 roads in Aba with the promise that it would be completed and commissioned within its 100 days in office.

July 3, 2015