Chairman of the Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bro. Felix Obuah, has reacted to a press statement by the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, imputing that the state government’s decision to close down illegal schools across the state is targeted at schools owned and run by non-indigenes particularly the Igbo and Northerners who are members of the APC in Rivers State.

“Interestingly, the statement came from no other, and could not have come from any other than Mr. Davis Ikanya, the controversial APC Chairman in Rivers State who has long entered the Guinness Book of Records as not only a harbinger of falsehood but also an unrepentant self-seeking alarmist,” Obuah said in a statement.

Obuah also stated that “Ordinarily, such statements hardly deserves our reaction but for the need to put the records straight so that some impressionable minds do not get trapped in his (Ikanya’s) snare.

“In the first place, the public outcry over the deteriorating fortunes and rapid fall in the standard of education across the length and breadth of Nigeria is common knowledge vis-à-vis the call for thorough re-examination of our educational curricular and quality of teachers with a view to containing the menace.

“It’s against this backdrop that the State Ministry of Education had sensitised and requested all private schools operating in the state to formalise their registrations to enable the relevant agencies guide and monitor them according to set standards, and in the interest of our children and wards.

“Accordingly, Governor Nyesom Wike onAugust 15, 2017, graciously gave a second opportunity for unapproved private schools in the state to regularise their status before the new academic session begins in September 2017.”

He said it was on that strength that operators of private schools in Rivers State were advised to visit the quality assurances department of the Ministry of Education for regularisation of their schools, stressing that “It is therefore shameful for Mr. Ikanya to have claimed that the genuine exercise was aimed at Igbo and Northerners who are APC members in Rivers State.

“It’s needless to stress that this laudable and bold step by the State Ministry of Education has been overwhelmingly acclaimed by the general public as a welcome development and stand to get the pay for their efforts and sufferings to give their children the best education as a safeguard for their future.

“It suffice to say that it is only the like of Davies Ikanya and his co-travelers whose children are studying abroad where education is better regulated and where they prefer to waste the looted resources of the state on high school fees and ostentatious living that will not see anything good in the people-oriented effort to improve the educational standard in the state,” Obuah said.

The PDP Chairman emphasised that the State Ministry of Education means well on the decision to clamp down on illegal schools, “basically to guarantee a better and secure future for our children as leaders oftomorrow. There is no intention whatsoever to witch-hunt anybody.”