Abia Headmistress Demoted For Embarrassing Governor’s Wife
The headmistress of a primary school at Amaetiti Asaga Ohafia, in Ohafia
Local Government Area, Abia State, Mrs. Maryleen Ezichi, has been
reportedly demoted to a classroom teacher for allegedly embarrassing the wife of Abia State governor, Nkechi Ikpeazu.
It
was gathered that Ezichi has been transferred to the Ukwa-East Local
Government Area — about 140 kilometers from her former school — to serve
as a deterrent for her ‘impunity and lack of respect for constituted
authority’.
The headmistress, it was learnt had, during an
interactive session with Ikpeazu’s wife after the inauguration of her
free meal programme for primary school pupils in her school, complained
that ‘teachers were being owed several months of salary arrears and
allowances’.
Ezichi was quoted to have told the governor’s wife
that teachers had been finding it difficult to meet their financial
obligations like the payment of house rents, school fees for their
wards, medical bills, transport fares and had pleaded with her to
intercede on their behalf.
It was gathered that two days after,
the embattled Ezichi was whisked away to Umuahia from the school, where
she was handed a letter of deployment and instructed to proceed to the
new station immediately.
While defending the headmistress, one of
her colleagues, who spoke on condition of anonymity, queried the
appropriateness of the government’s action, maintaining that if the
government felt embarrassed by her appeal it should do the needful.
He
said, “By the way, of what importance is the meal programme to the
pupils in particular and the schools in general? What about other
schools in the community? All we are saying is that the government
should pay us our entitlements period.”
In January, the state’s
wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers had embarked on an indefinite
strike over their six-month salary arrears, non-payment of leave
allowances and non-implementation of their promotions.
Reacting
to the development, the Chairman of the state’s NUT, Chizobam Akparanta,
stated that he was not aware of the incident, adding that if the
teacher complained about it to the union, the NUT would look into it.
When
contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the state Ministry of
Education, Chris Ogbuehi, denied any knowledge of the matter even as he
insisted that he was not in the position to speak on such a sensitive
matter without the permission of his boss.
The Chief Press
Secretary to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Enyinnaya Appolos, said the
information made available to him by the Commissioner for Education,
Prof Ikechi Mgbeoji, had it that there was no such incident in the
state.
He added that the state would investigate the allegation to ascertain what truly happened.
Category: Nigeria National News
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