By IHECHINYERE CHIGEMERI-UWOM

The Abia Government on Tuesday announced that the preliminary test sessions (PTS) for students of School of Nursing, Amachara and Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, had been cancelled.

The Commissioner for Information and Culture, Mr Okey Kanu, disclosed this during a news conference on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting in Umuahia.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that some students of the schools had on Thursday, staged a protest and alleged that the exams were manipulated by their various schools.

NAN also reports that the students called for the cancellation of the PTS examination.

Kanu said that the cancellation was done by the government based on allegations of wrong doings during the exercise.

“As a responsive government, a committee was set and the preliminary report of the committee showed that the exams be cancelled, while investigations continue,” he added.

Kanu said that the government committed to promoting transparency in all its activities.

“Be rest assured that very soon there will be another exam to ensure that all the issues associated with the problem are put right,” he added.

The Principal Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Chinenye Mba, said the committee had met with stakeholders and leaders of the School of Nursing, Amachara and Federal Medical Centre Umuahia, to ascertain what went wrong during the examination.

“After reviewing all the information that had been gathered from all the concerned parties, it was clear that the examination could have been conducted better to maintain the integrity expectation of an examination.

“We are still looking into the matter to ascertain exactly what went wrong or during the examination and how these things can be corrected,” Mba said.

Also, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma, said that the government had set up the right machinery to intervene in the issue.

Ekeoma said that the intervention of the government was in tandem with the promises made by Dr Alex Otti during the inauguration of the present administration.

He said that the administration had declared a state of emergency on the health sector, upon assumption of office, and urged stakeholders to support government’s efforts to transform the sector.

“The admissions of the nursing students were not done by the previous administration, ordinarily we would not have admitted over 400 persons for a quota of 70 persons,” Ekeoma said. (NAN)

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