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.
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.”
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