The Abia State Government has vowed to investigate the allegations by students in Abia State Nursing school in Amachara, that their Preliminary Test Sessions (PTS) examination results were manipulated by officials of Nursing schools. To this end, it has urged the affected students to come forward with evidence of bribery and other scandals, to enable the State government probe the matter.
In a statement signed by Mr Dodoh Okafor, the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Alex Otti on Special Communications, the State government said it was sensitive to the feelings of its citizens and was ‘ seriously concerned by the allegations of bribery and other forms of process distortions as the affected students and their parents have publicly made’.
The Abia State government invited the students and their parents to quickly write a formal petition to Governor Alex Otti stating all their claims, with reliable, foolproof evidence to substantiate their allegations, as according to the government’s statement, it can not act on ‘hearsay’. The formal petitions, it said, should be addressed through the office Chief of Staff to the Governor in Umuahia.
The State government promised that the allegations raised by the Nursing students would be painstakingly investigated and all accused persons invited to present their own side of the story, and declared that “Nobody will be shielded and nothing will be swept under the carpet”.
The government message read in part: “The Governor had severally emphasized that his only interest in the admissions process in institutions owned by the State is for the rules of meritocracy to be followed. Whether at ABSU medical or law schools, the governor had made it clear that he has no candidate neither does he have any list. “We therefore encourage all who believe that something had gone wrong in the admission process into the nursing schools to put their facts together and present to the government as well as be ready to follow up by appearing to testify when called upon. Nobody will be victimized in any way for stating what they know to be true.
“In the New Abia, allegations of corruption and dishonesty in service delivery will never be swept under the carpet and nobody who attempts to short-change hardworking Abians of what is due them will be spared. This is a new regime and the ways of the past shall no longer hold. “As we have requested severally, if you have evidence of corruption, extortion or acts of dishonesty against any official of this present government in the state, please kindly bring it forward.
We are committed to sincere and honest services, in line with the electoral expectations of the people who voted in Dr. Alex Otti into office. Nobody who attempts to use public office to pursue private gains will remain in the new system for long”, the message declared.
