14 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2013
Igbo interest better protected in PDP —Orji
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MUAHIA—GOV ERNOR Theodore Orji of Abia State has urged the people of the South East region to continue to support the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was their collective interest is better protected by the party. The governor, who spoke against the back drop of emerging collaboration of opposition parties, said it had become pertinent to reassure the Igbo that their nests were better feathered in the PDP which had become a phenomenon in Nigerian and African politics. In a statement, Mr. Ben Onyechere, Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Communication said: “With the trend of politics in this nation, it is not difficult for Igbo to know that they can no longer play opposition politics because of the experience of the past where they were left in the cold for which reason we have become wiser. “It is also not difficult to decipher the political motives of some of us who may want to use Igbo to bargain for their selfish interest. Igbo have no reason to be alarmed because they have paid their dues.”
Oko poly: NANS denies apologising to governing council chair BY ENYIM ENYIM
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N I T S H A — THE National Association of Nigerian Students has denied ever apologising to a former chairman of the Governing Council of Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Dr. Anene Uzuakpunwa. Rather, the Zone Coordinator of the umbrella student body in Nigeria, Mr. Chinonso Obasi, told reporters yesterday in Awka that NANS stood by its position that Uzuakpunwa should not be reappointed chairman of the polytechnic’s governing council. Obasi said the purported apology to Uzuakpunwa could have been made up by people who were not part of NANS or authorised to do so, andthatNANSwillchargewhoever must have represented it to court.
Imo road fails Reps’ standard test As contractor insists firm did a good job BY EMMAN OVUAKPORIE
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WERRI—THREE sections of a road project on Owerri-Umuahia in Imo state yesterday failed all tests to ascertain the level of compliance in the execution of contracts as specified by the Federal Ministry of Works. This was discovered by members of the House of Representatives Committee on Works, led by its Chairman, Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi, during an inspection tour of federal roads in the state. The team, consisting mainly of Reps who are engineers subjected the road project to scientific tests via the eco-test system and currying machines. At the end of the tests, the various portions tested along the 22km road and culverts failed. The site contractor, Mr. Ferdin Amin, of Zerock Construction Nig Ltd, the contracting firm, had protested that his men had done a good job. Ozomgbachi, however asked the contractor to point out portions he was sure were properly done and same poor result was revealed by the machines. Ozomgbachi at the end of the inspection, had told journalists that ”the essence of this whole ex-
ercise is to ensure that the tax payer gets value for his money at all times. ”But these tests are not the final results as we shall put the samples collected to further laboratory tests and still come back to see whether the various amendments have been made to specification.“ The Committee members cov-
ered the Ahiara Round About, Enyiogugu-Aboh junction and Nkwogu Enyiogugu. The contract sum of the 22km road was put at N4,207,774,864.51 and amount paid since last June when the contract was awarded, stood at N1,320,708,058.45. Those in the inspection team
include Chairman House Committee on Works, Hon Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi, Fort Dike, Abdulmalik Usman, Tobias Okwuru, Ajibola Famurewa, Nosakhare Osaretin, Ganama Kwaga, Ibrahim Nuhu and t’he Imo state Federal road Controller, Engr E.Nwankwo
CONDOLENCE VISIT: From left; Prof. Anyo.O. Anya, President General, Ndigbo Lagos; Mrs. Priscillia Onyegbadue, widow, and Mrs Amina Ukiwe, during the condolence visit to the family of late Chief Pini Jason Onyegbaduo, at his Surulere residence in Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Kehinde Gbadamosi.
My father never made any wish for Obi to be re-elected in 2010 —Emeka Ojukwu Jnr
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By ENYIM ENYIM
NITSHA—FIRST, son of late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu,Emeka Ojukwu jnr, has said that his father never made any wish for Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State to be re-elected in the 2010 gubernatorial election. Speaking to newsmen in his Nnewi residence, he contended that the assertion was a political gimmick by Obi to get a second mandate from the people of the state. He said the so-called wish was the only strategy that could draw the support of Anambra voters since the time was short to shop for another candidate for the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in the last governorship poll. He said: “It is a fact that my father was the pivotal factor…That and Chief Umeh’s strategies. The billboards, the posters, the socalled “last wish”, all were designed to raise sentiment. “To tap into that enduring love the majority have for Ezeigbo, to galvanise an otherwise lack lustre campaign into a victory for Governor Obi. “Actually, I had resigned long before then, but to my father, the survival of the APGA was paramount. “After several meetings, during which alternatives to Governor
Obi where considered, it was the consensus that with limited time on our hands and the lack of uncommitted credible aspirants, ‘the
devil you know’ was better than a gamble. “To him, APGA was the symbol of Igbo unity, the means with
which Igbo could sit around the table to negotiate at the federal level, in order to be able to better protect our interests.”
Repair of federal roads: Abia seeks N14.6bn reimbursement have construction equipment Committee of the House of
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BY ANAYO OKOLI
MUAHIA—GOVERNOR Theodore Orji of Abia State put forward to the federal government for reinbursement N14.6 billion, being money expended on federal roads by the state government. He also has lamented the quality of contractors doing federal roads in the South East zone, and called on the Federal Government to give roads in the zone to quality and credible contractors. Orji, who noted that the money covered rehabilitation of 16 federal roads, said the state ws already awaiting federal government’s valuation of the work done and approval of the refund to the state government. Orji emphatically said the quality of the contractors given federal roads in the zone was in doubt, considering the manner they handled road projects. According to him, some of the contractors are so low in standard that they don’t even
but hired tools from local contractors. Governor Orji spoke yesterday when members of Works
Representatives who were on oversight of federal roads in the South East paid him a courtesy call.
Emminent Nigerians eulogise Achebe BY UDUMA KALU & PRISCA SAM-DURU AGOS—EMINENT Ni gerians, yesterday, in Lagos extolled the life and times of the the departed literary icon, Prof Chinua Achebe. Though the tributes were varied and mostly extempore, speakers were united in their description of Achebe as a patriot who loved his country, who spoke the truth and whose life was worthy of emulation. Some of the Nigerians who gathered at the NIIA, Lagos, for the event, tagged, ‘Achebe: A Day of Tributes,’ organised by the professional Igbo group, Aka Ikenga, included diplomats, military
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chiefs, traditional rulers, writers, scholars, cultural groups, among others. In his tribute, former Nigerian ambassador to the United Nations, Chief Arthur Mbanefo, said the celebration offered Nigerians an opportunity to reflect on Achebe’s life, just as the former Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Economic Summit Group Ltd. Prof. Anya O. Anya, who was Achebe’s neighbour at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, noted that though Achebe was never a government minister, he was being celebrated globally. Achebe, Anya went on, “was defined by who he was: he was humble, simple and intelligent, with human failings as well.”