Immediate past Governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, has been invited to appear before the Judicial Panel of Inquiry into the Management of Abia Newspapers Publishing Corporation (ANPC) on June 10, 2013.

The panel wants the governor to come and say all he knows about the corporation during his tenure. Some of those who have appeared before the commission have alluded that Kalu’s government (1999-2007) ordered printing machines for the state newspaper, Ambassador published by ANPC but the machines are nowhere to be seen. Orji Kalu is expected to throw more light on the issue.

At its last sitting, the panel chairman, Justice Amobi Agbara, ordered that Orji Kalu and five others be served its notice of summons to appear before the panel on June 10 through a substituted means.

The others are a former Commissioner of Information, Prince Emeka Obasi; former Attorney-General, Barrister Ugochukwu Okeugo; former Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Onyekwere Ogba; former Accountant-General, Gilbert Anyanwoke; and former General Manager of ANPC, Tony Nzotta.

Justice Agbara gave the order following the failure of the affected persons to appear before the panel last Monday.

Giving the order, the panel chairman said the commission’s summons should be published in three “widely read newspapers.”

According to him, the substituted service became necessary after concerted efforts to serve its summons on the former governor and the five others failed.

He said the long adjournment was to afford those invited sufficient time, adding that those already appearing before the commission were also expected to appear on June 10.

Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of Enugu-based Fourth Dimension Publishers Limited, Chief Arthur Nwankwo, who was one of those invited by the commission to appear before it last Monday, has submitted a memo to the panel. On his part, a former Abia State Commissioner of Information, Dr. Agbai Kalu, appeared before the panel after hearing of his summons through the radio.

•Photo shows ex-Governor Kalu.

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