UNIUYO Riots: Akpabio Calls For Thorough Investigation

Gov. Godswill Akpabio
visiting UNIUYO after
yesterday riots that led to the
death of several students
By SaharaReporters, New
York
Governor Godswill Akpabio
of Akwa Ibom State has
called for the establishment
of a panel to probe the riot
that erupted in the University
Of Uyo (UNIUYO), resulting in
property damage of millions
of Naira, so as to bring the
culprits to book.
On Wednesday, students of
the Department of
Engineering staged a
demonstration to the Office
of the Vice-Chancellor to
protest the hike in the
transport fare from the
institution's town campus to
the permanent campus.  The
peaceful protest however
turned awry: two students
were reported to have been
killed; the offices of the Vice
Chancellor and the Deputy
Vice Chancellor were
torched; and several cars and
the security post were
vandalised.
The worst hit was the
university's Examinations
and Records Department,
which was set ablaze. The
department maintains
academic records, especially
the transcripts of students
who graduated from the
defunct College of Education,
Uyo; the defunct University of
Cross River State; the present
University of Uyo; and the
Unified Matriculation Tertiary
Examination.
The governor, who was
conducted round the scene
of the incident on Thursday
by the Vice Chancellor of the
university, Professor Comfort
Ekpo, in the company of
Deputy Vice Chancellors Paul
Ekwere and Okon Ansa,
described the riot as
criminal, targeted and pre-
meditated.
He said that the miscreants
took undue advantage of the
disagreement at the
institution, and that the
students targeted the
destruction of the school's
academic records and
policies, saying that it was a
pre-planned arrangement by
the miscreants who
pretended to be students of
the institution.
"This act is a disaster,” Chief
Akpabio declared. “My
observation here is that the
destruction of the buildings
was targeted at the 20-year-
old school records and
examination results.  It was a
pre-planned arrangement by
miscreants who are
professional “students”
using the opportunity of the
peaceful protest to raze
down buildings where the
school's academic records
were kept."
Akpabio called on the
Nigerian police to carry out a
thorough investigation into
the case, and suggested the
involvement of President
Goodluck Jonathan, who is
the Visitor, as well as the
Minister of Education, in
getting to the root cause of
the matter.
The governor expressed his
sympathies with the
institution over the sad
incident, and pledged the
state government’s readiness
to build and hand over two
hostels to the university as
soon as the institution
allocates a site for the
project.
In her remarks, Professor
Ekpo explained how the
institution had decided on
the increase of the transport
fare from N100 to N200 from
the town campus to the
permanent campus after the
students.
The President of the
Students' Union
Government, Lucky Imo
Inyang and the Vice President
of National Association of
Nigerian Students, Comrade
Ubon Marcus, expressed
their regrets about the
incident, blaming it on
miscreants who hijacked the
peaceful demonstration by
the students.