The Abia State government has said that it will recover all properties, including land acquired illegally and dubiously from over 180 schools in the state. The Information and Culture Commissioner, Prince Okey Kanu, who  made this known, yesterday, after the state executive council meeting, also said that the state government has concluded what he called the diagnosis of the state education sector.

He also disclosed that a committee, chaired by  Pastor Caleb Ajagba, the Chief of Staff to Governor Alex Otti, and comprising some commissioners and other top government appointees, has been set up for this purpose.

The committee, according to him,  was mandated to identify about 180 public schools whose land has reportedly, in one way or the other,   been taken over by officials and cronies of the immediate past state administration,  asserting that the state government would not tolerate the greed and mindless impunity by a privileged few who have surreptitiously taken over lands belonging to government schools.

Kanu added that the state government also decried the fact that some of the public schools that have been returned to some organisations were being used for other purposes instead of the exclusive  educational  purposes they were mandated to.

He said: “The state government insists that such schools must be used exclusively for educational activities. Organisations that are finding it difficult to run such schools should return them to the government.”

Adding that a full assessment of the educational sector of the state has been conducted, the commissioner said that about 12, 000 teachers in public schools will undergo a capacity building programme during the summer to prepare for the upgrade of schools from September.

On the status of the newly created  Federal College of Education, Ofeme, Umuahia North Council,  which, he  said, the state government has fully endorsed, and is  clearing the site for the school, he said that a takeoff office has also been  assigned to the college.