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Tag: Nkechi Ikpeazu

  • Herdsmen attack: Abia to offset medical bill of victim

    Abia State government has announced its readiness to offset the medical bill of a female victim that survived attempt by a Fulani herdsman to sniff out life from her at Ogbor ancient Kingdom in Aba North Local Government Area of the state.

    This was disclosed by the wife of the State Governor Deaconess Nkechi Ikpeazu when she paid unscheduled visit to the victim, Esther Ibem-Nmecha at the Aba General Hospital where she has in the past two weeks been receiving medical attention.

    Ibem-Nmecha, a single mother was fortnight ago attacked by a Fulani herdsman identified as Garuba Salisu at No. 1 Peppels road behind the popular Enyimba Hotel on Aba-Ikot Ekpene expressway after she had asked him to remove his cows from her business premises.

    Abia First Lady who was said to have visited the hospital on her return from visit overseas directed the management of the hospital to ensure that they gave Esther the best treatment and medical services that would enhance her recovery speed.

    Deaconess Ikpeazu who was touched with the condition of the victim who was in pains throughout the stay of the First Lady assured that the state government would ensure that the matter wasn’t swept under the carpet.

    “I just came back and heard about what happened and I decided to come by myself. The governor has said that the government will settle every medical bill.

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    “I’m therefore pleading with the hospital management to do whatever you can do and be assured that government will take care of everything.

    “I know that the man who did this is already in the custody and the government is not keeping silent. Something must be done to see that we don’t have this kind of thing again,” she said.

    Speaking to journalists, the Chief Executive, Hospital Management Board of Abia State, Dr. Ngozi Nduka said that efforts are on ground to pull specialists to see how the victim can still make use of her severed left hand.

    “We have prosthesis. We are going to invite plastic surgeons to see what they can do. The fingers are already off. We are not going to fix them back because they didn’t come with her.

    “She came here without those fingers. If the Plastic surgeons wants to have her fingers fixed with prosthesis (artificial fingers) then she can still use those fingers.

    “Thank God it’s on her left fingers except if she is left handed. So, I believe that with the plastic surgeons coming in, there could be some forms of rehabilitation to ensure that her finger is still usable.”

    Nduka who said she cannot estimate the exact amount the surgery may cost, went further to say that it will cost a lot.

    She appreciated the Abia first lady for her visit and assurance that the government will foot every medical bill involved.

    Also speaking, the Transitional Committee Chairman of Aba North Local Government Area, Barr. Charles Esonu assured that he would make sure that the attacker, Garuba Salisu who is already remanded in prison would face full trial.

    Esonu further disclosed that he has started interacting with the Hausa-Fulani community in the local government to ensure that there won’t be any recurrence.

    According to him, he would also reach out to the members of the State House of Assembly to see how the anti-grazing law in the state would be further strengthened.

     

  • Abia chief judge calls for stiffer penalty on rapists

    The acting Chief Judge (CJ) of Abia state, Hon Justice Kalu Ogwe has called for stiffer penalty against any convicted rapists in the state especially those who specializes in defiling under aged girls.

    Justice Ogwe said that it is only when such stiff penalties which should include deaths sentences are meted out on such people that the incidences of pedophiles could become a thing of the past within the state.

    The Abia acting CJ then called for more messages and quick passage of bill into laws for the protection of women and children’s right, pointing out that offenders deserve life jail terms on conviction.

    Speaking in Umuahia when he received the wife of the state governor, Mrs Nkechi Ikpeazu and her advocacy team in his office, Justice Ogwe decried the high rate of pedophiles in the state which is reducing girl child to ridicule.

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    Justice Ogwe challenged women and girl child to stop adopting defeatist attitude when they are under attack by rapists, saying that they should put up a great fight which will help in fending off the rapists.

    He said, “Women and girls should not adopt a defeatist attitude whenever they are under attack by rapists, they should rather fight by grabbing the male genitals of their assailants as part of ways to ward them off”.

    The Abia acting CJ urged women to bring up their children so that male children do not feel superior to the female children, “The boys should be taught how to do household duties such as cooking, doing the dishes and cleaning up the house among others”.

    Earlier in her speech the wife of the governor, Mrs Ikpeazu said that her Vicar Hope Foundation in collaboration with other women groups in the state are seeking partnership with the judiciary on ways to better the lots of women and girl child in the state.

    Mrs Ikpeazu said that they are working to change the status quo in the way and manner women and the girl child are treated and also to give them better protection and access to avenues that can improve their lives.

    The Abia First Lady recalled that they had earlier visited the House of Assembly and the police headquarters, with the idea for the legislative arm to expedite action in passing bills against abuses on women and children and the police to execute such bills when they become laws without delay.

    Mrs Ikpeazu said, “It is in the same manner that we have come to you to encourage the judiciary on the need for speedy dispensation of justice for sufferers of various human rights abuses, especially women and children”.

    “We request that you look out for cases that are related to human trafficking such as baby factories, obnoxious widowhood practices and give it greater attention, as we believe that if justice is done speedily, it will serve as deterrence to others who may be thinking of doing such crimes”.

    She later made a request to the CJ asking for the creation of more family courts in the judicial divisions across the state that will handle civil matters in such a way as to assuage aggrieved family members.

  • Two die in auto crash involving Abia Gov’s wife convoy

    Tragedy struck on Tuesday in Abia, when two women died in an auto crash involving the convoy bearing the wife of Abia Governor, Mrs Nkechi Ikpeazu.

    One of the dead  women was  identified as  Mrs Promise Uche-Nwamkpa, wife of a former member of the Abia state House of Assembly. The second  woman was  Mrs Nwamaka Maduchukwu, a senior special assistant on media to Mrs. Ikpeazu.

    The accident occurred when the motorcade was returning to Umuahia from Ntigha-Uzor in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia, where Ikpeazu had attended a burial.

    Witnesses said that the Hummer carrying the deceased somersaulted thrice, when the driver attempted to overtake a vehicle at Ndiolumbe around 5 p.m.

    A female occupant of the vehicle, who escaped unhurt, told our correspondent that the driver was on high speed when the accident occurred.

    “The driver was on high speed and everybody in the vehicle was asking him to slow down. Suddenly the bus started jumping up and down before it started somersaulting,” she said.

    She said that the vehicle somersaulted about three times and that she only found herself seated safely on a field by the road.

    The middle-aged, fair-complexioned woman, who was wearing a dress designed for the burial, was full of praises to God, saying that “I escaped death by His grace.”

    The driver of the Hummer, Mr Bright Ugwubujor, blamed the accident on brake failure.

    Narrating the incident to our correspondent at the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, Ugwubujor said that the accident occurred when he attempted to overtake a vehicle ahead of him.

    “When I tried to overtake the vehicle, I noticed an oncoming vehicle and attempted to retreat but I encountered a bump on the road and when I tried to apply the brake it could not work.

    “Immediately, the vehicle began to somersault,” he said.

    A medical doctor at the unit, where all the victims were brought for medical attention, confirmed that the death of the  two women.

    He said that other occupants of the bus, including the driver sustained bruises and minor injuries.

    He further said Mrs Promise Uche-Nwamkpa, was brought in dead to the hospital.

    The second woman, Mrs Nwamaka Maduchukwu, gave up while doctors were battling to resuscitate her with the aid of an oxygen, he said

    Maduchukwu was  a widow and mother of four children.

    She was also the chairperson, State Information Chapel of the Abia Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists ( NUJ ).

    The Chairman of NUJ in the state,  Mr John Emejor,  who was at the hospital to sympathise with the victims, has expressed shock  over the incident.

    Also, the former lawmaker, Uche-Nwamkpa, who came to the hospital to identify the body  of his wife, wept uncontrollably.

    Her body was thereafter taken to the hospital morgue.

    Meanwhile, members of Maduchukwu’s church and colleagues resorted to frantic prayers to revive her.

    An aide to the governor’s wife, Mr Chika Ojiegbe, said the Office of the Wife of the Governor “will issue a release soon.”

    NAN

  • Gov. Ikpeazu, wife underscore need for urbanisation

    Gov. Ikpeazu, wife underscore need for urbanisation

    Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia has expressed regret that the three major cities of Aba, Ohafia and Umuahia, the state capital, do not have master plans, 26 years after the creation of the state.

    Ikpeazu made the observation at a meeting organised by Vicar Hope Foundation in collaboration with UN-HABITAT Programme in Nigeria.

    He wondered how past administrations carried out physical infrastructural development in the cities without master plan.

    He said that the meeting was auspicious, considering the way and manner people abused the environment.
    “We need to preserve our environment for our generation and generations to come.

    “I believe that if you do not take care of your environment, your environment will kill you.’’

    He, therefore, charged stakeholders at the meeting to think about the environment and how to achieve a better place for human habitation.

    In her speech, the Wife of the Governor, Mrs Nkechi Ikpeazu, urged the participants to evolve the best ideas and realisable action plan that would help turn around the conditions of the cities.

    She further underscored the need for all hands to be on deck in the onerous task of “making our cities cleaner, safer, functional and more profitable to dwellers and visitors’’.

    Mrs Ikpeazu, who is the founder of Vicar Hope Foundation, thanked the UN Habitat Programme for collaborating with the foundation to organise the meeting.

    In a goodwill message, the UN-HABITAT Programme Manager in Nigeria, Mr Kabir Yari, said the essence of the event was to promote sustainable urbanisation.

    Yari was represented by Dr. Steve Onu, a member of the UN Steering Committee on making cities resilient.

    He expressed the hope that the meeting would come out with a road-map on how to tackle the challenges posed by rapid population growth in the urban centres.

    In her speech, the Executive Director, Women Communication Centre, Hajia Limota Giwa, said that the meeting provided an opportunity for the cross-fertilisation of ideas on how to achieve the UN objective for the new urban agenda.

    Giwa commended the governor’s wife for her passion and commitment toward achieving sustainable urbanisation in Abia.

    She said that her initiative had given Abia visibility on the global map.