EXCLUSIVE: UNIUYO
Security Chief Says
VC, Deputies Induced
Deadly Students’
Protest To Conceal
Fraud-PREMIUM
TIMES
June 27, 2013 - 12:43 —
siteadmin
caption:
Registrar and VC
office set ablaze
By Ini Ekott
A deadly student
protest at the
University of Uyo,
UNIUYO, which left
at least one
student dead and
key offices razed a
fortnight ago,
erupted after the
Vice Chancellor and
two deputies
repeatedly ignored
red flags, and
indeed, fueled the
crisis presumably
to save their skin
from a possible
graft investigation,
the school’s chief
of security has told
the National
Universities
Commission, NUC.
In a report he filed
to the NUC, a copy
of which is in the
possession of
PREMIUM TIMES,
Okon Nyong, a
retired Army
Lieutenant Colonel,
provided shocking
details of the
events of June 12
to the commission,
urging broad
inquiry into serious
allegations of
negligence and
fraud against
Professors Comfort
Ekpo, the school’s
VC; Okon Ansa, the
deputy vice
chancellor,
administration; and
Paul Ekwere, the
deputy vice
chancellor,
academic.
Mr. Nyong said he
was confident the
sloppy response
from the school
management was
deliberate to stir a
crisis that would
raze documents
and other materials
that could be
evidential in the
event of graft
investigation
against it.
“The protest was
management-
induced to destroy
vital documents to
cover up their
corrupt practices in
the system,” the
retired lieutenant
colonel said.
The university
remains shut after
the demonstration,
which began
peacefully over
inter-campus
transportation that
tasked students
N200 per day,
degenerated after
police fired live
ammunitions killing
at least one
student.
Minutes after the
attack, the students
rallied and burnt
the VC’s office, the
examination and
bursary unit and
the security post,
witnesses said.
The school’s
security chief
provides the first
insight into how
the University
management
ignored warnings of
possible trouble
and insisted on
withdrawing buses
that shuttled
students between
campuses more
than 10 kilometers
apart.
The buses, almost
free as students
paid only N1, 000
per semester, were
due to be replaced
with those from a
private provider,
AA Rescue;
requiring that
students, mainly of
engineering and
science faculties,
pay N200 daily.
Governor Godswill
Akpabio,
accompanied by
Prof. Comfort Ekpo,
Vice-Chancellor,
Uniuyo, inspecting-
properties
damaged at the
University of Uyo
town campus.
Despite the
significant
difference-with the
students having to
spend N1, 000
weekly and N16,
000 a semester of
four months- Mr.
Nyong said the
agreement with the
operators excluded
students’
representatives,
and the school
refused a sustained
enlightenment and
a gradual
transition to the
new order.
Authorities also
rejected
suggestions for
adequate security,
including the use of
police to strategic
offices, before the
withdrawals.
“The advice was
ignored,” he said.
Early signs of
troubles came after
students blocked
an intra-campus
road a week earlier
over a delayed
school bus, and
also protested new
levies including
N2,000 late
registration; N2,000
for a new general
course and N1,000
for a planned Arts
centre.
While the unrests
were resolved,
tension hung in the
air. Yet, the school
leadership insisted
on changes within
days, the security
chief said in letters
sent to the NUC.
He confirmed same
details to PREMIUM
TIMES on
Wednesday.
“Why were they
hasty in effecting
the decision
despite the
enormous problems
at hand?”Mr.
Nyong asked.
With transit delays
between Port
Harcourt and Uyo,
the contracted
buses finally
arrived on June 11;
and despite
warnings, the
school management
effected the
changes a day
later, surprising
hundreds of
students who had
arrived at the main
campus to board
buses to the
permanent campus
for early morning
lectures.
As hours mounted
for the students,
with no buses in
sight, senior
officials of the
school, including
the two deputy
V.Cs repeatedly
rebuffed
suggestions they
address the
increasingly restive
students, Mr.
Nyong said.
After police fired
and killed a student
hours into the
initially peaceful
demonstration,
students deposited
the corpse at the
VC’s office, and set
the security office
ablaze.
Mr. Nyong said he
sought police
assistance to help
secure the most
vital offices to no
avail. While the
police milled
outside, they
insisted on an
official
communication
from the school
management to
step into the
campus. For hours,
neither the V.C,
nor the D.V.Cs
obliged, Mr. Nyong
said.
“Expressly, the
inferno at the
University of Uyo,
was caused by the
management’s
disdainful
treatment and
handling of security
matters, abrupt
mismanagement
and outright
negligence of
security
information,” he
said.
Rescue efforts,
including dousing
the fire, were done
later at night with
the help of the
State Security
Service.
Vice Chancellor
Ekpo refused to
comment when
reached on
telephone on
Wednesday. She
responded to our
calls, identified
herself, but left the
phone open
repeatedly without
any response once
the concerns were
put to her.
But beneath the
cover of the June
12 trouble, staff
and students of the
school speak of a
deep-seated friction
in the school’s
current leadership
and a complex
management that
makes it hard to
properly harness
resources and
derive efficiency.
Substantiation for
that claim may, in
some ways, lie in
the fact that ahead
of the recent
uproar, the
university remained
amongst the most
peaceful, enduring
years of calm with
barely student
demonstrations,
much more, violent
ones.
Mr. Nyong, who
has served under
three Vice
Chancellors in the
school, accused
Mrs. Ekpo of
handling security
matters with
“emotion”; and he
suspects that may
have to do with a
turbulent history
they both share.
The Vice Chancellor
particularly ignored
the many
suggestions by Mr.
Nyong that may
have helped avert
the student crisis,
after he turned
down her request
to recommend her
candidate for a
security job, and
also criticized a
shady N350 million
loan guaranteed by
the V.C. for the
school’s irritable
Non Academic staff
union-in a
suspected bid to
cow the union, Mr.
Nyong told the
university
regulatory body,
NUC.
“She felt
challenged,” he
wrote, “especially
when I made it
known to her that
the office in
question is for
senior officers,
hence the need to
follow due process
to advertise the
office, to attract
competition so that
a better candidate
can emerge. Since
then, she sought
ways to frustrate
me out of the
system.
The loan deal is
currently under
police investigation
and the affected
members of staff
have been
questioned-but like
a multitude of
corruption cases,
may never be
concluded.
The school’s
security unit says it
is deprived of
working devices,
vehicles and
benefits. For
instance, only one
Hilux patrol car is
currently in use for
five campuses.
Despite their
apparently
precarious
functions, staff of
the department are
denied Hazard
Allowance of only
N15,000 whereas
drivers are paid.
“Security staff work
against armed
robbers, cultists,
rapists, kidnappers,
mosquitoes,
snakes, and other
wild animals under
sun and rain.
Whose job then is
more hazardous?”
Mr. Nyong asked,
comparing security
workers with
drivers who receive
that allowance.
As the relationship
became rockier, the
V.C. signaled early
June she will no
longer be working
with the CSO
beyond June.
Pressured by other
staff, she offered
an extension of
only a month-to
end July. But after
the June 12 crisis,
Mr. Nyong was
served a sack letter
three days later.
He said the move
was preemptive; to
debar him from
testifying should
the federal
government initiate
a probe into the
riot. He assured the
NUC that despite
leaving; he will be
available if ever
needed for details
of the events.
“This is ridiculous,”
he said. “I promise
to be available
from anywhere to
render my account
of the ugly incident
whenever I am
invited.”