Gov Alex Otti

The government of Abia State has postponed the resumption date for both public and private schools in the state for the 2024/2025 academic session.

Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, who disclosed this during a press briefing on the outcome of this week’s Executive Council meeting in Umuahia, gave a coinciding Muslim holiday as a reason for the postponement.

According to him, schools across the state will now resume on Wednesday, September 23, instead of Monday, September 16, as originally scheduled.

This is as he announced that the second batch of training for teachers would commence on September 11 and end on September 20.

According to him, the exercise will be held simultaneously at three centres: Aba, Umuahia, and Ohafia, adding that 1800 teachers are being targeted.

He said the training was part of the ongoing transformation agenda of the current administration in the education sector.

The commissioner said over 200 teachers were trained in the first batch, added that it was part of the protocols for school resumption.

He further announced that the state government had granted a 90-day moratorium to owners of landed property without registration in Aba to register them at the old rate.

This, he explained, was borne out of the governor’s magnanimity and compassionate disposition towards governance.

He said, “If they have to pay for it at the new rate, they would complain, but the governor had directed that they pay at the old rate as a way of encouraging them to go ahead and obtain the certificates.

“This, of course, is another instance of the governor’s compassionate disposition towards the implementation of government policies and programs,” Kanu noted.

Contributing, the Director General, Greater Aba Development Authority, GADA, Mr Uche Ukaeje, said that property owners who built without approvals should ordinarily pay some penalties for contravening the building code.

“What the Governor did was to pardon the affected property owners and allow them to only pay the old fees but within 90 days. It was a Christmas gift to them.”

The Information Commissioner further disclosed that Abia State had been selected as one of the six states to fly the flag of Nigeria at an international medical symposium held in Ghana.

He said that the programme which is a biphasic initiative between the World Bank and the Federal Republic of Nigeria, “is tagged HOPE, which stands for Human Capital Opportunity for Prosperity and Equity.”

According to him, Abia was chosen “as a result of the focus on the state due to the ongoing reforms in the state in the health sector.”

On the ongoing Light Up Abia Initiative,” he said 4,346 solar lights had already been installed across 86 locations within the state, adding that the policy is spreading to other parts of the state.

“This is in fulfilment of the need to make the towns and cities in the state more comfortable for residents and to improve security in our state,” he added.

He announced that the Abia Electricity Bill had scaled through second reading at the State House of Assembly.

The Commissioner expressed the hope that the House members would fast-track the passage of the bill upon their resumption from recess.

According to him, the passage of the bill “will give further impetus to the ongoing reforms in the power sector in the state.”

Adding his voice, Commissioner for Power and Public Utilities, Ikechukwu Monday, an engineer, described the Abia Electricity Bill as a masterstroke that will revolutionise the power sector in the state.

He explained that the passage of the bill into law would give the state government the opportunity to own power assets and to regulate the sector.

“When it comes into effect, this law will give us the mandate to establish the Abia State Electricity Regulatory Authority. It will also give us the mandate to establish the Abia State Rural Electrification Agency.”

Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Ukoha Njoku Ukoha, who was also at the briefing, said Gov. Alex Otti’s administration had come to change the narrative and put the state on the path of development.