ABIA YOUTHS ASK GOVERNOR OKEZIE IKPEAZU TO REINSTATE DEMOTED HEADMISTRESS

A youth group in Abia State has called on the Abia State Government of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to reinstate the demoted headmistress of Amaetiti Primary School , Asaga Ohafia , Mrs. Maryleen Ezichi. The headmistress is being victimized for begging the governor's wife to help them (the teacher) solicit for their over five months unpaid salaries .

The youths made the demand in a press release by the organization , Young Leaders Association of Nigeria .

Read full text after the cut

YOUNG LEADERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA

PRESS RELEASE

RE: Illegal demotion of Mrs. Ezichi Maryleen, Headmistress of Amaetiti Primary School, Asaga Ohafia by the Abia State Government

The Young Leaders Association of Nigeria, also known as Nigerian Youths Forum, Abia State Chapter condemns in strong terms, the continuous victimization of the primary school headmistress whose only offence was to plead for her over five months unpaid salaries by the Governor Okezie Ikpeazu led administration. Mrs. Maryleen Ezichi was the Headmistress of Amaetiti Primary School, Asaga Ohafia until last month, March, when she was allegedly whisked away from her place of work to Umuahia, the state capital and thereafter handed to her, a transfer letter to another primary school in Ukwa-East Local Government Area to resume as a classroom teacher.

The news which was reported first by Punch Newspaper and yet to be refuted by the Abia state government indicate that the innocent woman’s ordeal came as a result of her “embarrassing” the wife of the governor Nkechi Ikpeazu who was in the school to kick-off her one free meal programme for primary school pupils. The 'embarrassment' was that Mrs. Maryleen Ezichi, a mother, pleaded with Nkechi Ikpeazu, a fellow mother, to intercede on behalf of the teachers to the state government for their over five months unpaid salaries to enable them buy foods for their children, pay house rents, take care of the medical need of their wards, pay debts, and other needs. But surprisingly, instead of taking pity on these starving teachers who are putting in their best to groom the primary school pupils for a greater society, the governor’s wife connived with her husband to demote the woman and transfer her to a remote area, about 140 kilometers away, with a stern instruction to resume immediately. This is in contrast to the fact that allocations from FG to the state have not dropped. We also recall that the state received  over 8bn naira in the last two months being part of the Paris Club funds from Federal Government. Yet, basic salaries are owed! This is the height of injustice and inhumanity to humanity. No other type of humiliation can be worse than this.

What baffles us is that the Abia State Government and its officials who are supposed to tell Abia people who elected them the truth of the matter, are busy denying being aware of the event which has been in the public domain for over a week now. We begin to wonder if the present government is turning Abia into a circus. Regrettably, another official of the government, Uche Olehi, who is a Personal Assistant to the Governor on Media was quoted to have said in an interview with an online medium that the headmistress was not redeployed because she complained of unpaid salaries, but because she “was running a beer parlour on the premises of the school”. We have tried so hard to find out that this does not even have iota of truth in it. How will somebody in her right senses run a beer parlour in a primary school? Who will patronize her? The primary school pupils or the unpaid teachers? Or even the farming households in Asaga?  This kind of tales can only come when the government is grasping for grounds to cover up its unfairness and injustice to the people it is meant to protect and advance their course.

We are also bewildered by the actions of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) and Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Abia State chapters. They have maintained a dead silence over the matter. The NUT, Abia State Chapter Chairman who spoke to a news medium also claimed ignorance of the incident, taking the same stance of the government and using the same language of government officials. Their silence is not only suspect but runs foul of their slogan that 'injury to one is injury to all'.  We think that they are acting a script given to them by the state government. We fear that the umbrella bodies which are supposed to speak and protect the interests of their members including Mrs. Maryleen Ezichi may have been compromised.

The Young Leaders Association of Nigeria, Abia State Chapter therefore condemns this undue maltreatment of this worthy Abia citizen by the government. We demand that the governor Okezie Ikpeazu led government should not only reinstate Mrs. Maryleen Ezichi but also pay all the teachers' their entitlements . A worker deserves his or her full wage according to a Bible injunction and we know the governor is a practising christian.  She should be praised for being brave and standing up for her right. We also call on other well meaning civil society and human rights groups and other well meaning Nigerians to persuade the Abia State Government to do the right thing. The government should stop insulting our parents, they should stop intimidating and molesting our parents. We do not understand why the government has decided to play hide and seek games with the state’s funds while those who work for the upliftment of the state go to bed hungry and their children die of untreated illnesses.

Duke Imandu
Press Secretary, Young Leaders Association of Nigeria, Abia State Chapter

Engr. Uche Adimoha
State Rep

The 2016 Appropriation Act is now available

The 2016 Appropriation Act is now available. Check below

Three feared dead as Igbos and Hausa residents clashed in Aba

At least three people have been killed in Aba, Abia State, in clashes that started at the popular Ariaria Market, several witnesses have told PREMIUM TIMES.
The clashes began in the afternoon mostly between Igbo traders and their Hausa counterparts, they said.

One witness said the crisis started after a member of the Hausa community stabbed and killed an Igbo trader who reprimanded him for urinating near his store.
Other Igbo traders rounded the assailant and lynched him, the witness said.

Premium Times reported that other witnesses and residents said news of the incident spread to other parts of the town and a mob gathered and attacked the Hausa community around the abattoir located at Ogbor Hill area of Aba.
“From that point matters degenerated. Soldiers in nearby barrack are shooting and at least one Igbo trader was hit and killed by a bullet,” the witness recounted.

A spokesperson for the Abia State Police, Onyeka Ezekiel, told Premium Times over the phone that he had received reports of “pockets of demonstrations”. He however declined to give further details.

“I’m on my way to Aba with the commissioner to see things for ourselves so I cannot tell you the groups involved or if there were casualties until I get there. Call me back in two hours and I will be able to give you more details,” he said.

Bill to Address Demise of Governorship Candidates Passes Second Reading

A bill to make provision to cover the vacuum in the event of the death of a governorship candidate before the conclusion of an election passed the second reading in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Sponsored by the Majority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, and six others, the bill seeks to amend the Electoral Act 2010 to empower election tribunals and courts to declare the deputy governorship aspirant as winner in the event of the death of the governorship aspirant.

It also seeks the declaration of the candidate with the second highest vote as winner if the tribunal finds that the winner of the election was unqualified ab initio.

The bill is intended to address issues such as were thrown up  when the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Abubakar Audu, died before the conclusion of the last governorship elections in Kogi state, resulting in Independent National  Electoral Commission (INEC) declaring the election inconclusive.

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Abubakar Malami had posited that the APC can substitute the late Audu with the second placed candidate in the party primaries, now Governor Yahya Bello.

The deputy candidate to Audu, Hon. James Faleke who is currently in Court challenging Bello being picked as Audu’s replacement, was absent from plenary.

The sponsors of the bill also seek the inclusion of use of the card reader into the Electoral Act, and the elimination of all forms of discrimination in political parties.

Gbajabiamila in his argument, said the inclusion would codify what is already part of the process.

 “The courts have insisted that the card reader is an in-house regulation of the electoral umpire, INEC and that it’s not embedded in the Electoral Act. And for that reason the Supreme did not recognise it as law,” he said.

Lecturers Who Harass Students Sexually to Face 5 Years Jail Term

Lecturers that engage in sexual relationship with students would henceforth bag a five-year jail term if a  bill in the Senate, seeking to completely prohibit any form of sexual relationship between them and their students is passed and assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The bill on Wednesday, passed for first reading in the Senate.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege (Labour-Delta Central) and co-sponsored by 46 other senators, seeks to completely prohibit any form of sexual relationship between lecturers and their students, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

Briefing journalists after plenary, Omo-Agege said the nation’s institutions of higher learning must be sanitised to rid them of lecturers who saw female students as “prize’.”

According to him, when the bill is passed and signed into law, any lecturer found guilty will be liable to a jail term of up to five years but not less than two years with no option of fine.

“When passed into law, it makes it a criminal offence for any educator in a university, polytechnic or any other tertiary educational institution to violate or exploit the student-lecturer fiduciary relationship for sexual pleasures.

“The bill imposes stiff penalties on offenders in its overall objective of providing tighter statutory protection for students against sexual hostility and all forms of sexual harassment in tertiary schools.

“The bill provides a compulsory five-year jail term for lecturers who sexually harass students.

“When passed into law, vice chancellors of universities, rectors of polytechnics and other chief executives of institutions of higher learning will go to jail for two years if they fail to act within a week on complaints of sexual harassment made by students.

“The bill expressly allows sexually harassed students, their parents or guardians to seek civil remedies in damages against sexual predator lecturers before or after their successful criminal prosecution by the state,” Omo- Agege said.