Abia Assembly extends tenure of transition councils

HOPES for local council elections in Abia State have been dashed once more as the House of Assembly, following Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s request, has extended for another six months the tenure of the appointed 17 transition committees.

The Assembly noted that the extension was in line with the relevant section of the state law, which provided for a maximum of two terms of six months each for council transition officials. Announcing the approval yesterday, the Speaker, Martins Azubuike, said the extension was effect from July 1, 2015.

Meanwhile, the House also chose Solomon Akpulonu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Obingwa East Constituency) and Chijioke Nwachukwu of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA, Umuahia South Constituency) as Deputy Majority Leader and Minority Leader respectively. It also constituted various committees.

In another development, the governor yesterday said his administration would employ qualified engineers just as it did for the ongoing rehabilitation of 24 roads in parts of the state.

Ikpeazu, who spoke during the visit of the representative of the South East Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Uche Ukpabi, alongside colleagues, stressed the need for the body to assist in strengthening engineering courses at the state university at Uturu.

He also pledged to assist COREN in its professional practice even as he expressed worry at the increasing incidents of building collapse, sub-standard infrastructures and the imperative to check them.

Ukpabi had told Ikpeazu that COREN controls and oversees all engineering practices in the country. Noting that in Abia a good percentage of the government’s capital expenditure is on engineering projects, he solicited the state’s collaboration in checking quackery in the profession.