Gov Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State
Gov. Ikpeazu sacks ASEPA Deputy General Manager
[From BONIFACE OKORO, Umuahia]
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has sacked the Deputy General Manager, Aba Zone of Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA), Rowland Nwakanma.
The Governor has also hinted that the State would hire the services of professionals to handle waste management at the various zones in the state.
Secretary to the State Government, Barr Chris Ezem, said in a statement Thursday in Umuahia that Ikpeazu also dissolved “all Local Government Waste Management Zonal Heads in Aba, except Aba-Owerri Road, Ikot Ekpene Road and Express”.
“Government will henceforth, not condone any lapses in waste management in Aba and Umuahia and expect immediate evacuation of all residual wastes in all locations around the cities of Aba and Umuahia without any delay,” the SSG added.
According to him, the Governor further directed that “all sweepers in these areas are not affected and should continue to discharge their daily duties of keeping the roads clean” and that the state Commissioner for Environment, Sam Nwogu, should take over and oversee waste management in the zones, mandating the commissioner to “immediately advertise for the engagement of professional waste managers to handle the various zones.”
Nwakanma’s removal from office is coming barely two weeks after the General Manager of the agency, Eze Okwulehie, was also sacked by the Governor on December 10, 2021.
Recall that heaps of refuse resurfaced in Umuahia at about the beginning of this month which raised concerns and questions from several quarters on what ASEPA was doing.
Even the House Committee Chairman on Environment, Hon. Kelechi Onuzuruike, raised the issue as a Matter of Urgent Public Importance on the floor of the House and the House resolved to invite the GM to interface with him.
But before the appointed date, Okwulehie appeared on a live radio programme where he announced that the Accountant General of the State, Mr. Kelechi Imeoria, was starving the agency of funds as he has refused to release monies approved for ASEPA for over five months.
Few hours after the radio programme, Okwulehie was fired.
At about the same period, a non-governmental organization, Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy and Development (FENRAD), had called on Nwakanma to sit up in the discharge of his duties of carting away refuse in the commercial city of Aba or be removed for inefficiency.
