* Vows to recover illegally sold assets
The Abia State Government has begun the recovery of over 200 schools it hitherto returned to their previous owners such as churches, individuals and groups.
The government accused the churches, individuals and groups not only of mismanaging the schools but also of selling their lands, undertaking non-educational services/purposes and recruiting non-qualified teachers and staff.
A member of the government committee on the Schools Recovery, Architect Uche Ukeje, told journalists at the weekend that letters of recovery of the affected schools located in Aba have been served on their former managers.
Ukeje, who doubles as Director General of the Greater Aba Development Authority (GADA), said the government would leave no stone unturned in recovering all the schools and their illegally sold property.
He said the recovery letters set a seven-day transition period to allow the current authorities to remove their personal belongings and hand over all school property, records, and keys to the government-appointed managers of the affected schools.
According to Ukeje, when the affected school recoveries are completed in line with government directives, none of the hitherto managers will be expected around them.
Reports said that the performance/management of these over 200 schools that were handed over was supposed to be reviewed as per the agreement, but that was not done by previous administrations. Hence the schools began facing various challenges, including being outrightly sold off to individuals in parts or whole to estate developers.
According to the DADA boss, the recovery move is now a complete permanent revocation of the schools hitherto handed over to the churches and individuals who were initially identified as their original owners.