The Cross River State Government has launched a comprehensive investigation towards recovering assets of the University of Cross River State (UNICROSS) sold to members of the public without obtaining approval.
The investigation followed several petitions received from concerned group of stakeholders who have alleged that some high-ranking officials of the university, including members of the university governing council, had been involved in the unauthorized sale of the university assets
The petitioners claimed that the assets, which included lands, generators, the Student Union Government buses and other valuables, were sold without the knowledge or approval of the university’s governing council as well as the State government.
Addressing newsmen on Tuesday after an assessment tour of the tertiary institution, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Asset recovery and management, Agbor Gilbert, disclosed that the state government would examine all aspects of the alleged asset sale, including the identities of the buyers and sellers, the prices paid for the assets, and the procedures followed in the sale process.
Gilbert frowned at allegations of mismanagement and corruption levelled against some of the university officials by stakeholders in the state.
He highlighted that some members of the University’s Governing council have been accused of failing to provide effective oversight and leadership, leading to a breakdown in the institution’s administrative systems, as well as illegal encroachment on the University land.
The governor’s aide said: “We are here on the spot assessment on what was addressed to the department of asset management recovery. The Governor has directed that we should come and do at the spot assessment and brief him accordingly so that immediate actions will be taken.
“Going around right now everything contained in the petition has been confirmed to be true. There is massive encroachment on unicross land, infact embarrassingly massive and I can assure you that we are going to do everything within the law to recover those lands so that the university can expand further because without that the university is doomed, we cannot expand.
“We equally have found out that the massive allegations against the previous council that critical assets of the government were sold off without due process we can confirm that the allegations are true , because all the vehicles contained in that petition, the generators, we cannot find them.
“We are going to dig further because the Excellency is very much interested in solving this litany of problems that have befallen this university.
“As a government and department, we are giving a preliminary instructions for the areas been encroached upon we are going to stop the place, the main gate which is the assess roads to this building sites where they cannot have materials to feed the projects sites the project will stop naturally, while we will follow due process to evict all the illegal occupants of UNICROSS occupants.
“We are going to advise the Governor through a joint memo to advise immediately we should have perimeter fences, in addition to that they should be road networks in some areas yet to be attacked by land grabbers.
“Whoever no matter how highly placed that sold the land we will bring the person to book, you cannot sell what you don’t have if you don’t own a land you cannot move in and sell it. I speak as an activist, you cannot sell government property, in fact as a government we will get to the root of it”.
Also, the Acting Vice Chancellor of the university, prof Fransica Bassey, assured that the University under her watch will continue to collaborate with the state government, towards ensuring the perpetrators are decisively dealt with.
She assured that no staff of the University would be spared if found guilty of the allegations raised by the stakeholders in their petitions brought before the state government.
“Two weeks after I came into office, I visited Muri and his cabinets to talk about the environment, to talk to his people to desist and help us recover the land.
“We need to expand when this institution was cited many years ago. The population was very low, now we have many students, we need the land to build it is a real serious burden to us.
“The law does not respect anyone, if we find out that our staff are part of it it would be very disappointing to know that our staff are part of it. If some staff betrays the confidence of the institution and government then it is left for the government to do whatever they have to do”.
The Economic Adviser to the Governor, Prof Peter Oti, decried that the encouragement has affected the economic situation of the state.
“This land grabbing has affected the economic atmosphere of the state and the university and we must ensure we work together in addressing it”, he added.
