Abia State Government under the administration of Governor Otti has moved to retrieve all government-owned schools previously handed over to churches and individuals to manage.
The State Government argued that some of the schools handed over to churches and individuals that were initially identified as original owners, by former Governor Theodore Orji, in 2011, were badly run.
The state government said that the Churches and individuals breached not only the agreement which handed over the schools to them, but went ahead in selling off the lands and mismanaging the schools.
Uche Ukeje, director general, Greater Aba Development Authority (GADA), in an interview with journalists in Aba, stated that the government would leave no stone unturned to recover all the schools and properties wrongfully sold or unduly handed over to missions and individuals.
Ukeje, who is a member of the Abia State School Recovery Committee, explained that the missions and individuals mismanaged the schools, by engaging unqualified teachers, selling off lands and abandoning the schools.
Consequently, new principals have been appointed to resume work immediately in the affected schools, which are reported to be over 200.
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Government also announced a seven-day transition period to allow the current authorities to hand over all school properties and records to the newly appointed principals.
Ukeje added that when the recovery duties are completed, in line with government directives, nobody will come close to government’s property, much less buying them without government’s consent.
He announced that over 200 schools within Abia State that were handed over to mission and individuals, by previous administrations in the state are currently facing challenges of either being outrightly sold off to individuals or had parts of its land sold to estate developers.
The GADA boss also explained that the act of selling schools handed over to them, was against government policy, noting that the intention of government at that time was to provide quality education for Abia’s children.#Otti
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