The Abia State Government yesterday inaugurated a Judicial Panel of Inquiry charged with examining the management of Abia Newspapers and Publishing Corporation (ANPC) from 1999 till date.

Inaugurating the panel at the Executive Chambers of Government House, Umuahia, Governor Theodore Orji said the task of the five-man was to unravel while the company which should be the mouthpiece of the state has been floundering despite funds being sunk into the place.

The Abia Chief Executive listed the Panel’s terms of reference to include to investigate and determine the remote and immediate causes leading to the non-functional state of ANPC and to identify the assets, including vehicles, printing machines and other equipment acquired by ANPC from 1999 till date.

Others are that the Panel should investigate and determine whether the funds and assets of ANPC were properly managed during the period under review and where there is any mismanagement, to identify those directly or indirectly involved and make appropriate recommendations.

The panel is further expected to make recommendations on how ANPC can be repositioned for greater efficiency.

The company was publishing the popular Ambassador newspapers until Orji Uzor Kalu became governor of the state in 1999. Whereas it died under Kalu’s watch, he set up his own newspaper, The Sun, in Lagos, which has become a big success and recently marked its tenth anniversary. The talk in Abia has been that Kalu killed Ambassador to start The Sun.

News Express learnt that Orjiis uncomfortable with the way Kalu is using The Sun to fight him. In trying to reposition Ambassador, he may also be trying to have a newspaper with which he could fight back.

Though Kalu installed Orji as governor upon completing his second term in 2007, the two have since fallen apart and are now at each other’s throat. Just last weekend, the Senate of the state-owned Abia State University revoked Kalu’s degree certificate, a decision which the former governor alleged was instigated by his estranged political godson.

However, inaugurating the panel of enquiry yesterday, Governor Orji said he was not targeting any person but only exploring avenues to make the company viable.

His words: “You and I know the chequered history of the company. Upon all the money that is being sunk into that place, that company has not been able to stand on its feet and people are very conscious of this. They have been urging me, writing petitions and asking me what I am doing about that company. Do you want this company to die? A lot of things are happening there.

“And the way to find out what is happening and to chart a new course is to bring together men of integrity to look into the affairs of that place and find out actually what is happening and show us the way forward, so that company would stay and last and survive all of us.

“It is not good that we have a viable company like that that is the mouthpiece of the state, today you see the paper on the street, tomorrow you don’t see it for one month. They tell you machine had done this or that; the staff are quarrelling among themselves.

“So, it has become necessary that we do what we have to do and the right way to do it is what we are about to do.”

He assured that the report of the panel would be implemented to the letter. “We are not here to mesmerise people. We are here to face facts and figures, to be sincere to the people. So, when your reports come to us, be rest assured that that report will be implemented to the letter. Where it is difficult for government to implement, we seek opinion: how do we implement this. If it is the one that will take us to court, we go to go to court,” the governor said.

He charged the panel not to be shy in inviting any person who is involved and as well give such person fair hearing.

Responding on behalf of others, chairman of the panel, Justice Agbara Amobi, assured the governor that they would not abuse the confidence reposed on them.

“In the course of doing this job, we intend to be firm, we intend to be just. We also intend to give right of audience to all manner of people that will have cause to appear before us. It is also an article of faith that the findings we will make, the state will find it very useful,” he said.

Other members of the panel are Barrister K. I. Ole, Barrister Obinna Nkume, Barrister Mike Obi Okezie, and Pastor Peter Onwumere.

•Photo: Governor T. A. Orji.