Abia takes over 200 schools from churches, others over mismanagement

Abia State government has begun the recovery of over 200 schools it hitherto returned to their previous owners, which, it was gathered, included churches, individuals and groups.

The government accused the churches, individuals and groups not only of mismanaging the schools but also of selling their lands, undertaking non-educational services/purposes and recruiting non-qualified teachers and staff.

A member of the state government committee on the Schools Recovery, Architect Uche Ukeje, told journalists on Saturday that letters of recovery for the affected schools located in Aba had been served on their former managers.

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Ukeje, who is also Director General of the Greater Aba Development Authority (GADA), vowed that the government would leave no stone unturned in recovering all the schools and their illegally sold property.

He said that the recovery letters set a seven-day transition period to allow the current authorities to remove their personal belongings and hand over all school property, records, and keys to the government-appointed managers of the affected schools.

According to Ukeje, when the affected school recoveries are completed in line with government directives, none of the hitherto managers will be expected around them.

It was gathered that the performance/management of these over 200 schools that were handed over was supposed to be reviewed as per the agreement, but this was not done by previous administrations. Hence, the schools began facing various challenges, including being outrightly sold off to individuals in parts or whole to estate developers.

According to the DADA D-G, this recovery move is now a complete permanent revocation of these schools, hitherto handed over to the churches and individuals who were initially identified as their original owners.