By Ogbonna Amadi
Chief Umeh Kalu, the Abia State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice recently fielded questions in an exclusive interview with Vanguard on various issues affecting the State.

An activist lawyer, Kalu in this interview answers questions on such issues including the alleged gang rape of a female student of the Abia State University, the dismissal of non indigenes from the state civil service and the ongoing squabble with a mobile telecommunication company over taxes.

Excerpts:
Kidnapping of kidnapping and other violent crimes as was the situation some six months ago. How did you achieve this?

We have consigned kidnapping to the past in Abia State. And I can tell you that the ugly incidence of kidnapping in the State has permanently been arrested and we can never get back to that era where people could not go about their normal duties without fear of being kidnapped.

This feat has been achieved by the doggedness and determination of the Governor of Abia State in conjunction with the relevant security agencies in the country to tame the tide of kidnapping and other violent crimes in the State. I can emphatically tell you that so much was spent in resources, time and planning to get us to where we are today.

Gov. Theodore Ahamefula Orji

The credit must go to the Governor, Chief T. A. Orji, who did not spare anything to ensure that Abians and all others who live and do business in Abia State could have a safe place to carry on their legitimate business without fear of falling victims to the antics of these criminal elements. The various security agencies, especially the Army, the Navy, the Nigeria Police, the Nigerian Security Defence Corps and the State Security Service, must be given credit for the prevailing peace in Abia which I know will endure.

There has been some legal tussle between the Abia State Infrastructural Development Board and the telephone service provider, MTN. What are the issues involved and what is the Government doing to resolve same?

The impasse between the Abia State Infrastructural Development Board and MTN borders on MTN not being willing to meet its civic obligation to the State in the area of tax payment. The Board is statutorily empowered by law to demand and collect infrastructural levy from persons and corporate bodies who do business in Abia State.

MTN is a corporate body and has its facilities for carrying out its business within the State in Abia State and as such liable just like every other corporate body to payment of infrastructural levy. This levy has been assessed over the years for which they have been in default and a demand made on MTN for which they have refused and or neglected to pay. The law establishing the Board made ample provision for the legal means of compelling payment from defaulters like MTN through the due process of law.

The Board through law officers in the Ministry of Justice applied to the revenue Courts for an order compelling MTN to meet its obligation to the State and or an order to seal the business premises of MTN pending payment. MTN in utter disregard of the sealing order on its premises as made by a Court of competent jurisdiction in which they were represented in the course of the trial by two Senior Advocates of Nigeria unsealed the premises on their own thereby attracting an order of bench warrant on its officials.

I do not see anything wrong in all the steps taken so far by the Abia State Infrastructural Development Board, rather, I see a resort to self help and disrespect to the Court and the authorities in Abia State by MTN which should be strongly condemned. MTN as a responsible corporate body should exhibit high standard of corporate responsibility including meeting her obligations to Governments within their areas of operation where they make the millions and even billions of profit which they declare at intervals.

The moment they pay their tax to Government, I assure you the whole issue with the Board will abate. It is surprising to see MTN out of several other telephone service providers in Abia State refusing to pay Abia State Government while they delight in paying other States where they do their business. I am convinced that somebody somewhere in MTN is either fooling some people or is not doing his job properly.

How can you justify the enormous funds being expended by MTN in their several public advertorials in their failed attempt at blackmailing the Government or the Board and or the several millions of Naira being expended in payment of lawyers fees to defend them at the revenue tribunals instead of employing those funds to settle their obligations and continue their business unhindered in Abia State.

I don’t need to be a boardroom guru to know that the path being towed by MTN is counter-productive and not in the interest of their investors. Telephone consumers in Abia State and its environs have options and it is instructive to know that other operators like Airtel, Glo, Etisalat, etc do not have any problem with the State. If MTN ceases to operate or encounters problems in its operations, MTN consumers will switch over to other alternate networks. My candid advice to them is to tow the path of honour and resolve the matter.

What informed the recent civil service reforms in Abia State, especially the retirement of Permanent Secretaries and the back loading of non- Abia State citizens to their States of origin?

The present reforms in the civil service of Abia State are intended to inject fresh blood and ideas into the system. A situation where a Permanent Secretary or a Director will remain in office for upwards of ten to fifteen years or even more you will agree with me is unacceptable. By so doing, the younger ones are either frustrated or not given an opportunity of attaining their desired zenith in their chosen career in the civil service. The kernel of the reform is that Permanent Secretaries and Directors do not stay in office for a period of not more than eight years.

On the issue of non indigenes, I must tell you that the general public has been grossly misinformed on the reasons behind the policy.

Some years back, Abia indigenes in the civil service of some states within the Southeast and South-South geo-political regions, specifically Cross River, Enugu, Imo and the rest were sent back to Abia State including in some cases, the pension files of retired civil servants from Imo State. These returnee civil servants were absorbed into the civil service of Abia State even where there were no vacancies in order to save them and their families from the hardship occasioned by their sudden disengagement.

There were suggestions then that Abia State Government should equally disengage citizens from these neighbouring States working in our civil service in order to balance the scale.

This suggestion as strong and reasonable as it was to check the over bloated work force was bluntly rejected by the former Governor, Orji Uzor Kalu, who was bent on pursuing his now elusive bid for the Presidency of Nigeria. In recent times, the wage bill of the State is nearing N1.8 Billion and with the acceptance of Government to pay the N18,000 minimum wage bill, the wage bill of the State would in no distant time be in the neighbourhood of N2.5 Billion and for a State with a monthly allocation of below N3 Billion, one can imagine what crisis would evolve.

Furthermore, the recent crisis in Jos, Plateau State and Maiduguri has displaced hundreds of Abians who are back to the State and desire to be gainfully employed. The first law of nature is self preservation and what the Government has done is to seek for a way of attending to its problems as having a legion of unemployed persons would equally create some social problems for the State especially violent crimes.

What are your comments on the alleged gang rape at Abia State University?

The immediate response of Government on getting knowledge of the alleged gang rape in ABSU was to summon the Vice-Chancellor who is the administrative head of the institution for explanation. I am aware that Government drew the attention of the Commissioner of Police to the alleged rape report and advised him to investigate same.

Preliminary reports from the school authorities yielded no useful clue as to the authenticity of the report as the authorities claim that no incident of that nature occurred within the University campus and that the persons in the said video are not students of the institution. The Commissioner of Police in Abia State has equally not been able to unravel the identity of the victim nor that of the culprits in the said video episode.

Speaking to you as the Attorney-General of the State, the entire thing bothering on the widely circulated rape video tape remains in the realm of public conjecture. The offence of rape as contained in our criminal code is a very serious offence attracting very severe sanctions. No civilized society would condone or habour a rape culprit.

In all criminal investigations which will normally culminate to a prosecution and eventual conviction or acquittal as the case may be, there must be a complainant in the person of an identified victim and then an identified culprit who is usually the accused person or persons and then finally witnesses who will assist the police in their investigation and eventually give evidence during the trial. In the case at hand, nobody has shown up as the victim not to talk of identifying the culprits. Herein lies the problem which unfortunately nobody appears to be addressing.

I am aware that there is a lot of public outcry and condemnation by the media and human rights bodies over the contents of the video in circulation but the real concern should be that of giving the police the lead that would lead to the identification and arrest of the individuals in that video clip.

It does not serve any useful purpose to make huge noise about the incident happening in Abia, for crime is crime no matter where it occurs and the concern of everybody should be to ensure that those who run foul of the law are visited with the full force of the law. If and when the police conclude their investigations and it is discovered that the said rape incident occurred within Abia territory my office will be willing and ready to prosecute the matter in the interest of the society.

What is the Abia State Government’s position on the sovereign wealth fund as proposed by the Federal Government?

The position of Abia State on the Sovereign wealth fund is not different from the position of the Forum of Governors which is that the Federal Government cannot be said to be saving for the States when the States are in dire need of funds to meet pressing obligations. One can only save from surplus and since most of the States are running on a deficit, it would be foolhardy for their money to be unilaterally withdrawn from the federal allocation into the said fund.

While it is wise to save for the rainy day and by extension the future, one must live today in order to reap the savings of tomorrow. So in a nut shell, the states are saying that the sovereign wealth fund is unconstitutional and does not reflect the tenets of a federal structure which we are practicing.

The Federal Government could have sovereign wealth fund created out of the Federal Government’s allocation of the Federation account and allow component States to set up their individual sovereign wealth funds if they so desire.