Abia State Judiciary Panel on Recovery of Government Properties and Funds has recovered a Toyota Hummer bus donated to the Abia State College of Education, Technical), ASCETA, Arochukwu, through Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, project, from a former provost of the school, Philip Nto.
The order for the recovery of the vehicle was issued by Justice Florence Duruoha-Igwe who declared that the former rector had no approval from the Abia State government or TETFund to use the bus as his personal property.
The panel ordered that the vehicle should be given to the new provost of ASCETA, Professor Vincent Eze.
But the immediate past provost, Nto, has protested the seizure of the official vehicle.
Nto, who said he was entitled to go with his official vehicle by extant government regulations, wondered why the panel did put that into consideration.
He also said that the panel did not take into account that he (Nto) was being owed 120 million naira.
According to him, two conflicting orders were issued within two days by the panel, thereby raising suspicion about the action.
Nto, who said he was prepared to obey the order of the panel, stressed that he was uncomfortable with the haste with which the order was executed.
He called on Gov Alex Otti to ensure that the recovery panel was not used by some persons to execute personal fights.
He further said that he did not want to believe that he was being persecuted for working under the former PDP administration of Okezie Ikpeazu whom he said gave the necessary approvals for his actions.
Meanwhile, the panel has entertained a petition filed by former staff members of the college who were sacked by the former management of the institution.
