Abia State Government has stated its resolve to establish tuition-free schools in the three senatorial zones to train young people in some skills that are currently lacking in the State.
The State Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Umuahia on the outcome of this week’s Executive Council meeting presided over by Governor Alex Otti
Kanu said the one-year programme is residential and would feature the acquisition of skills on solar power assembling and installation, POP designing and installation, painting, masonry, and tiling among others.
According to him, the programme was in line with the State government’s interest in ensuring the abundance of artisans in the State instead of importing them from outside, stating that the graduands would be empowered with funds at the end of their one-year training.
“This is a government that does not believe in empowering people with Keke and the likes, rather the government is interested in training people who will acquire skills and who will be trained so that they can stand on their own. So, the schools will be tuition-free and at the end of their training, they will be empowered with funds to go and start their own businesses.
“Of course you know that for quite a while now we have been lacking in artisans that have these skills. Most of the artisans that we have who have skills in these areas come from outside the state and country. So, the State government is poised to put an end to that to ensure that we have our own young people who will take up all those skills, acquire them and make a living from them”
Prince Okey Kanu announced the decision of the State government to suspend the monthly sanitation exercise earlier scheduled to be held this Saturday.
He said “The suspension was as a result of the commissioning of geometric power plant that comes up on Saturday, the 24th of February and the reason for suspending it is the fact that we envisage that a lot of visitors would come from outside the State and when you have such important visitors you don’t need to impede their movement around the State”.
He however encouraged Abians and residents to ensure that their immediate environment is cleaned up on that Saturday.
He also disclosed that the State government has taken a firm stand on vehicles driving against traffic and is taking a measure to deal with it.
“Government has banned what we call ‘One way traffic ‘ in all parts of the State. It is now an offence to drive against traffic. This is in keeping with the culture of doing things right as being preached by this government. So going forward, driving against traffic will be a very serious offence in the State.”
The Commissioner used the opportunity to state that the supply of gas to the Geometric Power Plant in Aba has started in preparation to the forthcoming commissioning of the plant adding that the gas supply comes from Owaza in Ukwa West LGA.
Responding to a question on whether Abia State Government has a stake in the Geometric power, the Commissioner for Power and Public Utilities, Engr. Ikechukwu Monday said, “Abia State in terms of financial commitment, does not have a stake.
“However, we still have a stake and our biggest stake is to make sure enough power is supplied to Aba. So the stake of the people is there. Our plan is to collaborate with them to be successful because we also know that you cannot drive any industrialization which is a key part of the Governor’s agenda to develop and build up industrialization and manufacturing in Aba and you can’t do it without power supply. Our interest now is to get power for Abians and we are supporting geometrics in every way to make this possible”
Also speaking, the Commissioner for Environment, Philemon Asonye Ogbonna informed that the state government is still investigating the source of the contamination of Aro Ajatakiri stream, disclosing that some companies in Umuahia are under investigation on their waste disposal methods, assuring that soon, the state government will come out with the result of their findings.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu says, the state government is yet to get any released grains as announced by the federal government, stating, “I am not aware of any such issue.”
