The headmistress of a primary school at
Amaetiti Asaga Ohafia, in Ohafia Local Government Area, Abia State, Mrs.
Maryleen Ezichi, has been reportedly demoted to a classroom teacher for
allegedly embarrassing the wife of Abia State governor, Nkechi Ikpeazu. It was gathered that Ezichi has been
transferred to the Ukwa-East Local Government Area — about 140
kilometers from her former school — to serve as a deterrent for her
‘impunity and lack of respect for constituted authority’.
The headmistress, it was learnt had,
during an interactive session with Ikpeazu’s wife after the inauguration
of her free meal programme for primary school pupils in her school,
complained that ‘teachers were being owed several months of salary
arrears and allowances’. Ezichi was quoted to have told the
governor’s wife that teachers had been finding it difficult to meet
their financial obligations like the payment of house rents, school fees
for their wards, medical bills, transport fares and had pleaded with
her to intercede on their behalf.
It was gathered that two days after, the
embattled Ezichi was whisked away to Umuahia from the school, where she
was handed a letter of deployment and instructed to proceed to the new
station immediately. While defending the headmistress, one of
her colleagues, who spoke on condition of anonymity, queried the
appropriateness of the government’s action, maintaining that if the
government felt embarrassed by her appeal it should do the needful. He said, “By the way, of what importance
is the meal programme to the pupils in particular and the schools in
general? What about other schools in the community? All we are saying is
that the government should pay us our entitlements period.” In January, the state’s wing of the
Nigeria Union of Teachers had embarked on an indefinite strike over
their six-month salary arrears, non-payment of leave allowances and
non-implementation of their promotions.
Reacting to the development, the
Chairman of the state’s NUT, Chizobam Akparanta, stated that he was not
aware of the incident, adding that if the teacher complained about it to
the union, the NUT would look into it. When contacted, the Public Relations
Officer of the state Ministry of Education, Chris Ogbuehi, denied any
knowledge of the matter even as he insisted that he was not in the
position to speak on such a sensitive matter without the permission of
his boss.
The Chief Press Secretary to Governor
Okezie Ikpeazu, Enyinnaya Appolos, said the information made available
to him by the Commissioner for Education, Prof Ikechi Mgbeoji, had it
that there was no such incident in the state. He added that the state would investigate the allegation to ascertain what truly happened.
Source: Punch
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