by Our Reporter

The Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN) and the Akwa Ibom State government have received credit for the emergence of a public school, St. Mary's Senior Science College , Ediene Abak as the winner of the 2010 AKS/ NNPC/ MPN Science Quiz competitions for Secondary Schools in the state.

The commendation was given by the State governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, Mrs. Gloria Essien-Danner, Executive Director, Mobil Producing Nigeria and Dr. Akaninyene Udom, Chairman, STAN, Akwa Ibom state branch at the closing ceremony of the MPN sponsored quiz competition in Uyo recently.

Noting that he was impressed by the performance of the public schools in the competition, especially as they were able to clinch both the first and second prices at the annual exercise, the governor represented by the Commissioner for Education, Dr. Nseabasi Akpan attributed the performance of the public schools at the competition to the qualitative nature of the free education policy of government.

He explained that the state was proud public schools were improving on their performance at the MPN sponsored exercise and have provided books to enhance a sustained improvement.
While praising the contributions of MPN to the advancement of education in the state, he said the government's free policy on education will adopt practical approaches to meet the needs of the people and support the efforts of STAN in this regard.

In the estimation of Mrs. Gloria Essien-Danner, the “continued growth in stature and relevance of the AKS/ NNPC/ MPN Science Quiz can be attributed to the commitment of the Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN), Akwa Ibom branch who we commend for bringing some welcome innovations to make the event more competitive and exciting.

“These include migration of best practice by benchmarking such international competitions as the olympiad; expanding the subject areas to cover six broad knowledge areas and 14 subjects; organizing a pre-competition item- writing workshop for selected teachers and subject specialists and the participation of four students per school against the previous number of three.”

These innovations gave birth to the increased number of participating schools in the exercise from 427 schools in the 2009 edition to 652 public and private schools, the three Federal government colleges and six technical colleges drawn from across all the local government areas in the state.

The STAN Chairman, Dr. Akaninyene Udom, on his part gave the credit to the improved environment for teaching and learning occasioned by the prevailing practice of close supervision and monitoring of the school system and the motivational talks from speakers of last year's quiz competition.

Contestants from St. Mary's Senior Science College, Ediene Abak went home with N35,000 each, while N25,000 and N20,000 each were also given to contestants from Lutheran High School, Ikot Obong Edong and Top Faith International Secondary School, Mkpatak, the third place winner alongside books, trophies and plagues.

by Victor Victor, Calabar

The vote of the former Military Administrator of Bayelsa State, Col. Paul Edor Obi (rtd) cast through GSM phone to the State Chairman of People Democratic Party (PDP) three days after the Party's Primary elections in Bunyia/Okubuchi ward in Boki local government area of Cross River State has raised high tension in the area.
In a peaceful demonstration staged in Calabar, a group made of ward leaders, delegates, caucus members of PDP and other party faithful said the primary which was conducted on Sunday 4th 2010 was not free and fare as discrepancies were noted which resulted to 12-12 tie between the contestants, Peter Dibang Oweh and Emmanuel Attah.

Aggrieved party members who called for re-run election lamented that after one of their leaders, who had earlier abstained from the election and upon being aware of the 12-12 tie cast his vote through a text he send to the state chairman of PDP. The party primary election was scheduled for Saturday, July 3rd 2010 but could not hold because of logistic problem and was shifted to Sunday July 4th 2010.

Col. Paul Edor Obi who was on ground on Saturday told ward leaders and delegates as well as other PDP members that he could not wait till Sunday to vote as he needed to travel out of the community and that he would not cast his vote again.

In a protest letter dated 12th July addressed to the party Chairman, copied to Governor and others, signed by 15 delegates, caucus members, ward chairman, councilors and local government appointees said it is ridiculous and scandalous for a vote to be accepted from a voter that was not accredited during an election simply because he is highly placed.

They regretted that a party that is preaching due process could not practice what it preaches and lamented that Col Paul Edor Obi who is seeking to represent the people at the highest law making position- the Senate could not show exemplary life for others to follow and pleaded with the Party Chairman to authorize a re-run election failure to which the people will proceed to court for redress.

Explaining the discrepancies that ensued during the election, a counselor representing Bunyia/Okubuchi ward, Hon. Eunan Osibu said three contestants contested the primary and two, Peter Dibang and Emmanuel Attah had a tie of 12-12 while the other person George Obi Otu had no vote.

One of the controversial vote cast for 'Emma Dibang' was counted which has no identification of any of the contestant, in fact it was a voided vote but the presiding and returning officers counted it to make the tie vote, “We lodged a petition on July 5th 2010 to appeal panel but as we were waiting for the out come of the petition, Col Obi retired text in his vote to the party chairman who deemed it the 13 vote in favor of Emmanuel Attah”.

Also speaking the PDP Caucus member in Boki, Barrister U. R. Omah said legal and legal implication of the matter is that there was no clear winner at the election, that it is indeed only common sense that in a situation as this, there should be a re-run to determine a clear winner.

“The vote cast by Col. Paul Obi through text message to the State Chairman three days after the result was announced at the ward is invalid and should be treated as such”, the Caucus members opined adding the development is quite unfortunate and very strange, “legally speaking once there is a tie in an election, in a common sense, the tie should be broken on that day by a chairman and in this case, a ward chairman who cast what is called a casting vote to break the tie immediately before the final result is announced”, Omah told our correspondent.