Akpabio seeks probe of UNIUYO crisis

[Mirror]

Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State has called for a panel to be set up to probe the riot that engulfed the University Of Uyo (UNIUYO) recently and demanded that the riot's perpetrators should be brought to justice. Students of the institution's Department of Engineering staged a peaceful demonstration to the Vice Chancellor's office to protesting against the hike in transport fare from the institution's town campus to the permanent campus.

The demonstration however led to the death of two of the students. The office complex of the Vice Chancellor and the Deputy Vice Chancellor were burnt and several cars and security posts and the Examinations and Records Department were also vandalized by the students.

While being conducted round the incident scene yesterday by the VC, Professor Comfort Ekpo, Akpabio decried the students' irate action and described it as "criminal, targeted and pre-meditated."

Saying the protest might have been hijacked by miscreants pretending to be students, he added that it was a pre-planned arrangement by the miscreants who took advantage of the disagreement between the school authority and the students to destroy the institution's academic records and policies.

Speaking, Ekpo told the governor that they had already set up a committee to look into the students' complaints before the violent protest.

President of UNIUYO Students' Union Government (SUG), Lucky Imo Inyang, and the Vice President of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Comrade Ubon Marcus, both described the incident as unfortunate and blamed it on unscrupulous elements who hijacked the peaceful demonstration by the students against the increase in transport fare by the university authorities.

National Mirror