From Okey Sampson, Omaha
A group known as Common Man Assembly (COMA), Abia State chapter, yesterday, stormed the Abia State House of Assembly to protest high school fees presently charged at the Government College Umuahia, calling on the Assembly to intervene.
An indigene of Ubani Emede-Ibeku, Umuahia East constituency, Mr Chukwudi Onwudinanti, had last month, petitioned the Abia State House of Assembly Joint Committee on Education, Public Petition and Judiciary on the matter and the Committee is currently investigating it.
Onwudinanti had petitioned the Committee against the Fisher Education Development Trust, managers of the school, on the alleged high fees charged in the GCU and pulling down of monumental buildings in the school without recourse to members of the Government College Umuahia Old Boys Association (GCUOBA), owners of the college.
The committee in its last sitting asked all parties involved in the petition to maintain the status quo until the determination of the petition.
However, the group led by her President, Mr Nathaniel Nwoka and the secretary, Mr Banham Ezenwa, in a ‘Save Our Soul’ letter presented during the protest at the assembly complex, alleged that the GCU is currently being classified and run as a private school by the managers who are charging exorbitant fees of over N1m per session.
They pleaded with the Abia State Government to ensure the Government College Umuahia is returned to a public school status, so that children from poor backgrounds could attend the school.
The latter read in part: “The government should ensure that our children who are intelligent can go to the Government College, as it was in the past by making the entrance exam open to everyone.
“The school fees should be slashed to reflect the economic situation of our country and state now.
“The state government should be part of the management of the Government College Umuahia, so that our interest would be protected.”
The protesters carried placards, some of which read: “Bring down the high school fees of the Government College Umuahia,” “GCU should be made affordable for the rich and poor,” “Our children can no longer attend GCU due to high school fees,” “Governor Otti, please use you good offices and look into how GCU was handed over to the old boys and give solutions to the various issues.”
The deputy speaker of the House, Austin Okezie, who addressed the protesters, assured them that the Eighth Assembly was already handling the matter to ensure that the interest of the public was protected.
“I want to reiterate that this matter is already being looked into by the Joint Committee on Education, Public Petition and Judiciary.
“We have had two hearings on it and from all indications, we are going to have the final hearing just to give all the parties adequate opportunity to air their views.
“We assured you that public interest will be upheld at the end of the day. The content of the petition is quite clear and we have also seen your expression on the different placards you came with. We will come up with a resolution that will be in the interest of the public.”
As an old student of the college himself, he commended those who have been making efforts to restore the glory of the college and promised to ensure that all interests were protected.
Chairman, House Committee on Education, Okoro Uchenna Kalu, told the protesters that the matter had been brought before the committee and they were looking into it.