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Tag: Imo

  • Okorocha explains choice of son in-law as successor

    Rochas Okorocha of Imo on Tuesday cleared the air on why he is endorsing his son in-law, Mr Uche Nwosu, to take over from him as governor.

    Speaking with newsmen at the Sam Mbakwe International Airport in Owerri, shortly on arrival from an overseas trip, Okorocha  said that Nwosu is qualified to govern Imo and that his position on the endorsement stands.

    He, however, assured that the primary to elect a candidate a governorship candidate for the APC in Imo would be transparent, noting that there would be no shortcut in selecting candidates to fly the party’s flag.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that observers have been criticizing the governor for his penchant for choosing his relations to occupy public offices.

    Okorocha also disclosed that local government council elections in Imo would be conducted in June, to give residents of the state an opportunity to elect candidates of their choice at the grassroots.

    He said that he was working hard to boost the popularity of the APC in the South-East to make the party acceptable to the people in the upcoming general elections.

    The governor said that he was also taking necessary steps to inject life into the party to boost President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election chances.

  • ‘Don Waney’s men not in Imo’

     •Police begin show of force

    The Imo State Commissioner of Police, Chris Ezike, has dismissed reports that gang members of the late militant, Johnson Igwedibia, also known as Don Waney, have relocated to the state.

    The government granted amnesty to some members of the gang after they surrendered their arms.

    Ezike noted that the peace in the riverine communities does not corroborate with the claim of apprehension in any part of the state, saying the police has maintained high visibility across the state, especially at identified flashpoints.

    He said: “I do not know what you mean by relocation, but if you are talking about apprehension, I know that there could be false apprehension induced by non-existing fears. “There is nothing like relocation of Don Waney’s men to Imo State, the government granted amnesty to some militants who surrendered their weapons, but that does not mean that militants have relocated to Imo”.

    Ezike, who spoke while opening the operation ‘show of force’ at the Command’s Headquarters in Owerri, warned criminals still lurking in the state to relocate or meet their waterloo.

    According to him, the operation, which will cover major flash points in the state, including Ohaji-Egbema and Oguta council, was conceived to restore public confidence.

  • Imo to immunise 1.4m children

    Imo to immunise 1.4m children

    Imo State will administer measles vaccine on over 1.4 million children between nine months and five years, Health Commissioner Mrs. Angela Uwakwem has said.

    She spoke at the launch of the 2018 Measles Vaccination Campaign at Ideato South Local Government.

    It is organised by the Health Ministry in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organisation (WHO) and other agencies.

    Uwakwem described measles as contagious and one of six childhood killer diseases.

    She said Nigeria had 13,893 suspected cases last year, adding that this explains the follow-up immunisation campaign.

    “This is one of the best strategies to reduce childhood mortality and morbidity from measles among children less than five years.

    “…Imo State will immunise over 1.4 million children of nine to 59 months,” Uwakwem said.

    She said the state was first in 2016, adding that there is need to retain the position.

    The commissioner said immunisation would hold in Orlu and Okigwe zones between March 8 and 13, and Owerri Zone between March 15 and 20.

    She hailed the state for releasing fund for the campaign and Governor Rochas Okorocha and his wife for supporting health care.

  • Sacrilege in Imo

    Governor Ikedi Ohakim lost the re-election in Imo State in 2011 because it was strongly rumoured that some security officers in his convoy manhandled a Catholic priest for not clearing from the road early enough for the governor to pass. The state, like the rest of Igboland, sees itself as the Vatican of Nigeria because of the pervasive influence of the Catholic Church which brought modern social services as education and healthcare to the area and also helped to end such evil practices as killing of twins and the caste system.

    Yet, the greatest beneficiary of that saga is now up in arms in the open against not a mere priest but the Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Owerri, Most Reverend Dr Archbishop Anthony Obinna, a highly revered academic, author and conscience of the people of Imo State. By the way, Obinna two weeks ago presented a certificate of merit to Ohakim at a ceremony chaired by MTN chairman Pascal Dozie who is also the founder of Diamond Bank. In fact, it is now widely suspected that Okorocha engineered the rumour against Ohakim who, as the sitting governor, was the candidate to beat.

    While preaching at the weekend at the funeral of the mother of a businessman, Alex Mbata, at St Michael’s Church, Ngwoma in Owerri North Local Government Area, Archbishop Obinna took exception to Governor Okorocha’s unilateral decision that his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, who is currently the Chief of Staff after serving as the Commissioner for Lands, would become the next Imo governor. Okorocha had a few days earlier announced that his deputy, Chief Eze Madumere, would represent the Owerri senatorial zone from next year. He also announced unilaterally that his Commissioner for Information, Professor Nnamdi Obiaraeri, would represent the Okigwe zone. Not to be forgotten is that the governor has now announced the other persons who would be in the House of Representatives, and the list includes one Deacon Chike Okafor and Ugonna Ozuruike, another unknown person.

    Though Okorocha’s wife, Nkechi, and son in law as well as the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Chief Acho Chim, were right in the church service, Archbishop Obinna called a spade a spade. He stated fearlessly: “The state needs a seasoned administrator, and not a handpicked successor. …Not the governor, not his deputy, not me can determine who governs Imo State without recourse to the will or votes of the people”.

    Before he could finish asking the people to go and register for the 2019 general elections, members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by an appointee of Governor Okorocha rushed to the archbishop, took over the microphone and began to hurl abuses at Obinna. Other APC members joined him. Fearing the worst, young priests at the service formed a ring at the altar to prevent Okorocha’s people from physically assaulting the archbishop. It is interesting that as the profanity was going on, neither Okorocha’s wife nor her in-law, Uche Nwosu, made any effort to keep the APC members in check, thus fuelling speculations that the state government brought a large number of thugs to the church service to embarrass the man of God who had on February 14 released his Lenten Season message in which he advised the people to bear with philosophical equanimity the enormous pain and suffering the state government has been inflicting on them.

    Far from showing remorse for the irresponsible behaviour of his men in the holy precincts of the church while the mass was going on during the special season of lent, Governor Okorocha justified their action, saying “No amount of blackmail or tricks would change the plan of God on (sic) for the young man (that is, his in law) to govern the state. Anyone fighting him is fighting God”. It is self-evident that Okorocha sees himself as the God of Imo State, so he regards his own plan for his son in law as God’s plan for Imo State.

    Imo State is in its worst state of anomie ever. Markets are destroyed in these hard times without consideration for the victims who are quite many. Workers are owed, despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s release of two tranches of the Paris Club refunds and Buhari’s granting of bailouts on two occasions, running into humongous amounts. Pensions and gratuities are owed for several months, even though Imo is an oil-producing state.

    Okorocha’s government has compelled starving and old retirees to accept fractions of their entitlements as full and final payments. The hungry men and women accepted because they did not want continue to die of hunger and malnutrition. State High Court judges were owed for 16 months, but a few days ago got paid for six months following ex-Governor Ikedi Ohakim’s raising of an alarm about the plight of these judicial officers, and thus made the nation become aware that judges were owed their entitlements for more than one year on the ground that they were giving unfavourable judgments against the state government. The Owerri Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association has taken the matter before the National Industrial Court.

    By adding open fight against Archbishop Obinna to the endless crisis in the state, Governor Okorocha’s regime is doubling down, as the Americans say. The regime brings to mind the case of King Rehoboam in the Bible who told the Israelites when they were pleading with him to ameliorate their harrowing condition when he assumed the throne from his father, Solomon: “My father laid heavy burdens on you, but I am going to make them even heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I am going to beat you with scorpions. My little finger is bigger than my father’s loins” (I Kings 12: 15). This callous declaration resulted in a popular revolt against the king. Israel became divided, and it was so easy for the Babylonians to conquer it.

    Okorocha’s government is making history, but in a terrible way. Not even during the General Sani Abacha’s malevolent dictatorship were men of God of any sect attacked, all the more so during service. If Anthony Cardinal Okogie, Rev Monsignor (Prof) Obiora Ike, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, Archbishop Chukwuma and other religious critics of societal ills had come from Okorocha’s Imo, perhaps they would have long disappeared. Idi Amin of Uganda is the only African leader I remember who went physically after an archbishop.

    The Imo governor has taken his circus show of governance from the secular sphere to the sacred space. It is a tragedy of colossal consequence that Okorocha and his acolytes have absolutely no respect for the sacred. More tragic is that the APC has refused to call Okorocha to order.

     

    • Chief Duroha is an Owerri-based lawyer.
  • Imo, Oyo, Osun top JAMB candidates list

    Imo, Oyo, Osun top JAMB candidates list

    •367 virtually impaired among 1.6m registered

    Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says Imo State, for the third year running, topped the number of applications for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) with 92,890 candidates.

    The state was closely followed by Oyo (86,695) and Osun with 86,044 applicants.

    Sokoto, Zamfara and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had the least applicants with 13,456, 10,077 and 6,418 candidates.

    Registrar Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, who gave the figures, said 367 virtually impaired persons would join 1.6 million candidates to write this year’s UTME tomorrow.

    The UTME, Oloyede said, would hold in 605 Computer Base Test (CBT) centres approved by JAMB across the country.

    The registrar, who spoke in Abuja yesterday, said the board received a shortfall of 55,642 (3.2 per cent) in the sale of 2018 UTME application documents when compared to the 1.7 million applications it received last year.

    The decrease, according to him, was because of innovative measures introduced in the system by the board to forestall multiple registrations and cut other illicit practices by candidates.

    He said: “At the end of the two months application window, we realised that 1,662,763 candidates registered for the 2018 exam. This was contrary to 1,718,425 candidates that registered for same exam within a month and two weeks period in 2017.

    “A total of three hundred and sixty-seven virtually impaired candidates registered for this year’s examination as against the 201 last year.

    “The board will continue to provide all necessary support and logistics to the physically-challenged candidates for them to attain their educational pursuit. The Equal Opportunity Group under Prof. Okebukola, who assisted last year, will be conducting the examination for the virtually impaired candidates.”

    He said the board would not release the results of the UTME immediately because it wants to review the entire process after the examination.

    This, the registrar said, would help reduce the number of cancelled results at the end of the exercise.

    “We will not release the results immediately this year because last year, we wanted to prove a point that there was nothing extraordinary in immediate release but we know that that is not global best practices. Because we had to cancel some results as a result of what we found out later.

    “This year, if it takes us one, two and three days to look at those things, we will look at them before we release the results so as to minimise the number of cancellation that we will do,” he said.

    The registrar also said the board would pay N600 per candidate to write the examination at any approved CBT centre.

    He said the payment was to discourage candidates from paying any amount to examination centres.

     

  • Philanthropists to unveil skills centre in Imo community March 30

    A Nigerian philanthropist residing in Canada, Mr. Bernard Uzoagba and his wife, Sarah, have concluded arrangements to inaugurate a mobile skills acquisition centre in Imo State.

    The event, which will take place at the Central Primary School, Amandugba, in Isu Local Government Area on March 30, is expected to be attended by many dignitaries.

    The donor, who is also the Managing Director of One Skill Charity Foundation, noted that the concept behind the centre is to empower and train youths with quality skills to enable them to be gainfully employed and employers of labour.

    Uzoagba added that the gesture, which would begin with Amandugba community in Isu Local Government Area, would be extended to other communities in other local government areas in Imo State and Nigeria.

    The businessman, who said he had not received any financial assistance from anybody for his philanthropic efforts, added that he was not doing them for politics and has no intention of joining politics soon.

    He enjoined the people, especially the youths, to see the centre as his little contribution to their well-being, which he urged them to reciprocate by also giving out to others when they must have secured jobs in future.

    Uzoagba, who described the youths as the leaders of tomorrow, added that his foundation will provide hundreds of them in batches with skills on how to make bread, hairdressing and barbing, plumbing, electrical fittings and others.

    “Right now, we have constructed a skill acquisition free school that will be going round the local governments starting from here to all parts of Nigeria, if God permits me. We have bought the land for the centre and spent over N2 million in constructing the mobile school.

    “We shall soon construct the second mobile school in another local government in Imo State so that we can reach out to more youths with quality time and training,” he said.

    Uzoagba said the school will take off in September, this year.

    The couple came calling in the community unannounced last Christmas with clothes, shoes, bags and money for the people in the spirit of the season.

    Since 2012, the 33-year-old and his 30-year-old wife have given out over 43,000 exercise books, including pens, pencils and school supplies to the children in the community and surrounding villages.

    He said: “We did not only distributed the items in this community. Before getting here, we gave out 13 bags of these items to Christian faithful at Redeemed Churches in Aguda, Surulere and many bags to Dustbin Village in Okoafor, Ikotun, Isolo area, Lagos. In another Lagos church, we gave out bags to people to start business with the items. At an Anglican Church in Owerri, we gave out 10 bags to the members.”

  • Imo to arrest parents of kid-hawkers

    Imo to arrest parents of kid-hawkers

    Parents and guardians in Imo State who send their kids to hawk when they should be in school would be arrested.

    Governor Rochas Okorocha, who read the riot act to them yesterday, said parents have no reason to keep their children and wards away from school.

    He said the policy has been okayed by the House of Assembly.

    The governor, who spoke at the seventh anniversary of the free education programme, said that the programme “has become a huge success today”.

    He said: ”My desire is to see that every child of Imo is educated. I see education as life itself. Hence, I was propelled to introduce free education at all levels. My joy knows no bound that if I finish as governor today, I would have fulfilled my heart desire of eradicating illiteracy.”

    The governor hinted that there has been an explosion in school enrolment because of free education. He said school enrolment has risen from 280,000 in 2011 to more than one million in 2017.

  • Former Speaker commends FG for promoting local content

    Former Speaker commends FG for promoting local content

    Nwoha Amaechi, former speaker of Imo House of Assembly, has commended the administration of President Muhammad Buhari for genuinely promoting local content.

    Amaechi, who is also a board member of National Board for Technology Innovations ( NBTI ) said on Tuesday that only encouragement of local content could drive economic independence.

    He said over dependence on foreign expertise had done more harm than good to the country’s economy.

    Read also: Ajimobi, Akeredolu, Fayemi, others celebrate Ayo Afolabi at 70

    Reports say that President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Executive Order No. 50 on February 5, which prevents foreigners from getting jobs that can be effectively done by Nigerians.

    Amaechi described Buhari as a visionary leader, saying, “President Buhari has proved that he meant well for Nigeria’s progress, he wants us to be proud of our own.

    “Transfer of technology is never attainable anywhere in the world, the earlier we begin to patronise our own, the better for us,” he said.

    The former speaker said that it was time to stimulate self-sufficiency through promotion and utilisation of indigenous expertise.

    Amaechi called for total support for the policy because it had long term benefits for the country.

    NAN

  • Imo NSCDC denies shooting security guard

    Imo NSCDC denies shooting security guard

    THE Imo State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense (NSCDC), yesterday described as unfounded and misleading, the report of shooting a security guard attached to a popular hotel in Owerri by one of its personnel.

    The middle aged security guard, Mr. Chizorom Anayo, was allegedly shot on the leg by NSCDC officer attached to a politician.

    The state Commandant, Stephen Lar, told reporters that the Command has concluded preliminary investigations into the matter, adding that the victim was not shot as “mischievously” insinuated but sustained minor injuries why struggling with the armed officer.

    According to him, “the report that the security guard was shot is untrue, we have concluded preliminary investigations and discovered that what happened was that the security guard and his cohorts tried to disarm the officer and he was injured in the ensuing scuffle”.

    He explained further that “the officer in question is attached to the Commissioner for Public Safety (Chidi Nwaturuocha) and while trying to protect his principal from hoodlums and keke riders who flouted the state government order on the ban of Keke, some of them tried to disarm him and that was when the said security guard sustained some injury.

    Our men are strictly instructed on the use of firearms because we do not condone indiscriminate use of firearms.”

  • Senate alarmed over spread of Lassa fever to 14 states

    Senate alarmed over spread of Lassa fever to 14 states

    The Senate Thursday expressed concern over the spread of Lassa fever to fourteen states of the federation.

    It listed the affected states to include Edo, Ondo, Ebonyi, Nasarawa, Imo, Kogi, Bauchi, Anambra, Benue, Federal capital Territory, Abia, Ekiti and Delta.

    It also said that the outbreak of the disease which was first recorded on the 5th of January, 2018, has risen to 363 as against the lesser number of cases recorded in previous years.

    It said that out of the 363 cases, 81 persons have tested positive, while 44 persons have been admitted at the Institute of Lassa Fever Research and Control, Irrua Teaching Hospital, Edo State.

    About 11 deaths have been recorded, of which 3 are health workers, it said.

    Senator representing Edo Central, Clifford Ordia, drew attention of his colleague to ravaging spread of disease in a motion entitled “Urgent need to support the Centre for Research, Control and Treatment of Lassa Fever disease in Nigeria.”

    The upper chamber mandated its joint committee on Health and Primary Health Care and Communicable Diseases, to investigate steps taken by the Ministry of Health to curb the spread of the disease.

    It asked the Federal Government through the Ministry of Health to urgently provide the Center all necessary equipment to enable it meet its responsibilities to Nigerians seeking medical care at the center.

    It also resolved to urge the Ministry of Information and National Orientation to engage in sensitisation and education of the public on the prevention, control and treatment of Lassa fever.

    The upper chamber urged the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to quickly visit the center in Irrua Specialist Hospital for on the spot assessment, with a view to providing relief material to the victims.

    Ordia who quoting the World Health Organization said that fever is an acute viral heamorrhagic illness of two to 21 days duration that occurs in West Africa and is transmitted to human through contact with or exposure to food or household items contaminated with rodent urine or faeces.

     He said person to person infection and laboratory transmission can also occur particularly in hospitals lacking adequate infection prevention and control equipment.

    Ordia said: “The institute is the only centre in Nigeria known for excellence in the management, control and treatment of Lassa fever in Nigeria. The centre received samples from all states referred above for the purpose of examination and treatment.

    “The centre also engages in the training of Health care workers, i.e. Doctors, Nurses and Laboratory Technologists on the management of Lassa fever in Nigeria. Last year alone, the centre trained 67 health workers from 15 states with reported cases of the outbreak.

    “The centre is presently overwhelmed by the number of samples received, including patients on admission which has stretched the bed space, beddings, Dialysis Machine,  X-Ray equipment, Ultra Sound Scan, ECG Machine, Ventilators monitors, human and financial resources beyond limit.”

    “The centre is confronted with the challenges of Inadequate protective instruments for the health workers engaged in the management of  victims; inadequate drugs, i.e Ribarvirin for patient treatment; inadequate disinfectants and other infection prevention and control consumables; and lack of operational vehicles, public address system and health education materials for contact tracing and community sensitization.”

    The Edo Central lawmaker said that the Senate should resolve to make more funds available for the centre in the 2018 budget.

    It also urged the Federal Government to set up centres in different parts of the country.

    Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who presided, said health care should be one of the major responsibilities of government.

    Ekweremadu noted that “If this matter is not addressed, we will be fail in our responsibilities. And to know that this issue has been going on for years is worrisome.

    “We need to give this issue the attention it needs. We have enough medical doctors. We need to provide the needed equipment they need to work with. I believe that the committee will help us address the issue. We cannot allow this to continue to spread.”