Imo govt takes over Okorocha’s university

Imo State Government has taken over the Eastern Palm University, Ogboko and converted it to a campus of the Imo State University, Owerri.

Chairman of the Committee on the Review of the newly-established Tertiary Institutions in Imo State, Prof. Jude Njoku who announced the take over at a press briefing in Owerri on Wednesday, said the committee established a prima facie that the institution was established with state funds.

The 8th Imo Assembly had passed a law allotting 90 per cent equity shares to trustees of Rochas Foundation and 10 per cent to Imo state government.

The committee also recommended that both the Imo State University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Aboh/Okpala and the University of Science and Technology, Umuna should remain campuses of Imo State University.

Njoku noted that a judicial commission of inquiry would be set up to determine the sources of funding and ownership structure of the university.

He said that from the findings of the committee at the National Universities Commission (NUC), it was established that approval was given to EPU as the second University in Imo, 47th State University and 143 Nigerian university.

Consequently, he said the committee discovered that the land was purchased and paid for by the state government.

The committee also scrapped all polytechnics established by established towards the end of the Rochas Okorocha administration