Abia Assembly summons commissioner, gov’s aide over publication

By ANAYO OKOLI

UMUAHIA—Abia State House of Assembly has summoned the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mr. Cosmos Ndukwe, and Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Eze Chikamnayo, over a dirty and scandalous publication in a local magazine, Weekly Details.

The publication allegedly accused the information commissioner of many wrong doings.

The scandalous publication,it was learnt, was a source of embarrassment to the citizens of the state who pushed the House to investigate the matter.

Vanguard learnt that the Commissioner had accused the Chief of Staff of being behind the publication against him.

The summon by the House followed a petition by two groups who felt that the sordid revelation in the magazine was a big embarrassment to the government the two senior political appointees were serving.

The group said Governor Theodore Orji’s government that had been redirecting the affairs in the state did not need to have people of dubious or questionable characters in it.

The petitions were written by Concerned Citizens and Abia Patriotic Forum, whose leaders, Chima Obisike, Emmanuel Nwankwo and Comrade Sunday Ikechi were also invited by the panel set up by the House to investigate the petitions and report in the magazine.

Others summoned by the panel headed by the House Leaders, Chief Chidibere Nwoke, include a journalist, Uche Aja, Chuka Ekpe, the editor of the magazine.

Addressing the opening ceremony yesterday before taking on  the information commissioner, chairman of the panel, Nwoke, appealed to journalists to excuse the panel as the investigation was an in-house one.

Nwoke, however, promised that his four-man committee would do a thorough job and get to the root of the “war” between the commissioner and Chief of Staff.

The House panel has Chief Martins Azubuike as the Secretary, while Mba Ukaha and Mezie Nwaubani are members.