The seven-man committee inaugurated by the Imo State government to investigate the status of newly established tertiary institutions in the state by immediate past governor, Rochas Okorocha, has recommended the conversion of the Eastern Palm University, Ogboko, in Ideato South council area of the state to a campus of the Imo State University, Owerri, housing the faculties of Management and Social Sciences.
Professor Jude Njoku, chairman of the committee and ex-Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), said the institution, although recognised by the National Universities Commission (NUC) as the second state university in the state, with an acting vice chancellor and a governing council, should not be allowed to stay in view of the lean resources of the state to manage it along with other already existing institutions in the state.
Consequently, the committee has recommended the setting of up a judicial panel to ascertain the ownership of the institution.
Professor Njoku, who disclosed this while briefing newsmen on the findings and recommendations of his committee, said the committee is equally of the view that both the Imo State University of Agriculture and Environmental Science, Aboh/Okpala and the University of Science and Technology, Umuna, should remain campuses of the Imo State University, Owerri.
While Aboh/Okpala would be the campus for agriculture and veterinary medicine, Njoku said Umuna would be for Engineering, as earlier conceived.
To accomplish its assignment, Professor Njoku, also a former Commissioner for Education in the state, said that the committee first invited and interacted with all the key actors in the process of establishing these institutions, which included members of the project implementation committee (PIC) set up by the immediate past governor of the state, those appointed vice chancellors, rectors and provosts of these institutions.
“The committee found out that all the universities have enabling laws enacted by the Imo State House of Assembly, while it was only Bishop Shanaham, among the polytechnics, that had such enabling law,” he said, adding that the committee visited all the tertiary institutions involved for an on-the-spot assessment of facilities and structures on site.
In future, Njoku said, the government might wish to upgrade these campuses to full-fledged universities and polytechnics as the need and resources might dictate and permit.
He recommended the termination of the appointments of all the vice chancellors, rectors, principal officials, and members of the governing councils of the newly established tertiary institutions, while all the properties belonging to such institutions would be recovered.
