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Tag: UNIPORT

  • Aluu Four: Trial continues March 13

    Aluu Four: Trial continues March 13

    THE trial of the 12 suspected killers of four students of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), at Aluu in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State continues on March 13.

    A mob at Omuokiri, a university community, on October 5, 2012, lynched Ugonna Obuzor, Lloyd Toku Mike, Chiadika Biringa and Tekena Elkanah on the allegation that they were thieves.

    The suspects include the community leader, Hassan Welewa and a retired police sergeant, Lucky Orji.

    Hearing began in September last year with a deputy superintendent of Police (DSP) attached to the Homicide Department, Raphael Ezeji, who led the investigation, as the first Prosecution Witness (PW1).

    Progress had been stalled at each of the sittings, as the prosecution, led by the Solicitor-General (SG), Rufus Godwins, was faced with continuous resistance by defence counsel.

    At the last sitting in December, counsel to the first accused, Lawal Segun, Joshua Kehinde and other defence lawyers objected to the admissibility of statements by the police.

    At first, the counsel said Ezeji was not the right witness through whom the documents ought to be admitted.

    Again, they insisted that the statement was generated and signed under duress and applied for trial within trial for the accused persons.

    Justice Latam Nyordee adjourned the case.

    At the resumed sitting yesterday, Justice Nyordee ruled in favour of the defence.

    Segun alleged that he was tortured by the police before he accepted to sign the document.

    He admitte given the statement but said it was not read to him by the police before he was forced to sign it.

    His lawyer said the document should not be admitted as evidence, since his client had alleged torture and intimidation.

    Kehinde said the statement was made involuntarily, urging the court to reject it.

    The prosecution submitted that Segun did not produce any medical report from the prison officials.

    Justice Nyordee said he would take up the accused persons’ evidence before ruling on the voluntariness or otherwise of their statements.

    He adjourned the case till March 13 and 27.

  • UNIPORT 4: Court fixes February 27 for ruling

    UNIPORT 4: Court fixes February 27 for ruling

    The High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has adjourned till February 27, ruling on the admissibility of statements by the 12 accused being tried for the murder of four undergraduates of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT).

    The incident occurred in October last year at Umuokiri Aluu in Ikwerre Local Government.

    The four victims are Ugonna Obuzor (18) Theatre Art, Lloyd Toku Mike (20) Civil Engineering, Chiadika Biringa (20) Theatre Art and Tekena Elkanah (21) Civil Engineering.

    Twelve persons, including the paramount ruler of Aluu community and a retired police sergeant, are being tried for the killing.

    Hearing in the matter has since begun. The Deputy Superintendent of Police attached to the Homicide Department of the state police command, who conducted investigation into the murder, Raphael Ezeji, who is also the first prosecution witness (PW1), yesterday continued with his evidence-in-chief.

    It has not been an easy task at each of the sittings for the prosecution, led by the Solicitor-General (SG) and the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Rufus Godwins, to make progress in the hearing, following the continuous resistance by defence counsel on tendering documents in the widely- celebrated murder case.

    That of yesterday’s session was not different. At first, efforts by Godwins to tender statements obtained by the police from witnesses, including parents of the four victims, were objected by some of the defence lawyers. Their objection was on the grounds that the witness at the box (Ezeji) was not the right witness through whom the documents ought to be admitted.

    They insisted that each of the witnesses, who volunteered and signed the statement, should be docked to tender their documents.

    The court, however, admitted them as ‘E1’ to ‘E12’, beginning from those of the victims’ parents.

    However, the court reserved till the next adjournment to rule on whether or not the statements by the 12 accused were voluntary or confessional statements as claimed by PW1.

    The court will also rule on whether there is need for trial within trial or not.

    Counsel to the first accused, Lawal Segun, earlier objected to the admissibility of his client’s statement on the grounds that it was involuntary and called for trial within trial, to ascertain the truth.

    Suspected that if granted, there is likelihood that counsel will toe the same line, the judge adjourned for ruling and said the outcome would be the guiding principle for others.

    He adjourned for ruling and continuation of hearing.

  • UNIPORT reopens, resumes lectures December 9

    The University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) has reopened and will resume academic activities on December 9 in spite of the ongoing strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    The university’s spokesman, Dr. Williams Wodi, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Port Harcourt.

    Wodi said the university’s reopening was in compliance with the directive of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors, which was endorsed by the university’s Senate during its emergency meeting on Tuesday.

    “The Committee of Pro-Chancellors met and directed Vice-Chancellors to reopen their universities. Our Senate approved the directive and we have complied.

    “We didn’t call off the ASUU strike; rather, we reopened the university for academic activities and lecturers who return to classes will get their full entitlements.

    “Some lecturers, irrespective of the ASUU stance, have indicated interest to resume work and so, we are not saying that every lecturer must return to class,” he said.

    Wodi noted that on many occasions, students had called for a resumption of academic activities, even as the ASUU leadership continued its negotiations with the Federal Government.

    However, a source, who craved anonymity, said the move to reopen the university for academic activities was partly due to the rising public opinion, which queried the rationale behind the prolonged strike.

    He also said that most ASUU members were also unhappy with the intransigent posture of the union’s leaders despite the Federal Government’s willingness to resolve the crisis.

     

     

  • HOMEF brings livelihood college to UNIPORT

    HOMEF brings livelihood college to UNIPORT

    The University of Port Harcourt (Uniport) is to host the Rights Livelihood Campus (RLC) of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and the Right Livelihood Award Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden.

    The RLC will be hosted in the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Uniport.

    The campus is the fifth of such in the world and the second in Africa.

    The college is a capacity building initiative, which awards annually the “Alternative Nobel Prize”. It is an opportunity for the awardees of the prestigious prize to impact their knowledge on young people.

    The RLC has its global secretariat at the Universiti Sains in Penang, Malaysia.

    Dr. Monika Griefahn, Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees, Right Livelihood Award Foundation and a former German minister of Environment, welcomes the new development.

    She said: “We are very pleased that a Right Livelihood College campus is being established at the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria. The College continues to make positive impact in the lives of young scholars and continues to build direct links between academics, laureates and the wider community. We commend the University of Port Harcourt and the Health of Mother Earth Foundation for engaging in this partnership.”

    Also, speaking on behalf of the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Port Harcourt, Dr. Fidelis Allen, said: “The University of Port Harcourt has remained a citadel of learning and in the best traditions of scholarship we see the opportunity to host the RLC campus as one that will challenge our scholars as well as connect them with their peers around the world. We are equally pleased with HOMEF for making this partnership possible.”

    Nnimmo Bassey, Director of HOMEF, who won the Rights Livelihood Award in

    2010, is excited at the prospects.

    He said: “The Niger Delta has brought so much petroleum-dollar to Nigeria. Sadly, the extraction of the petroleum resources has brought devastation to the environment and livelihoods of the people. We believe that targeted researches here will generate tools for tackling these problems which will in turn find application in other challenged territories beyond the Niger Delta. HOMEF is proud to collaborate with Uniport in hosting the RLC campus in Nigeria.”

    The RLC is the global capacity building initiative of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, based in Stockholm, Sweden. Since inception in 1980, the Right Livelihood Award, popularly known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”, has been bestowed on 153 laureates from 64 countries. It highlights and supports stellar achievements in the fields of peace and justice, the environment and for the awardee’s endeavours to eliminate material and spiritual poverty.

    Some of the RLC campuses across the world include the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia; Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia; Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany, and Lund University Center for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS), Lund University, Sweden.

    Besides Bassey, the only other Nigerian to have won the award is the late Ken Saro-Wiwa, together with his organisation, the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), in 1994.

    Uniport will be formally unveiled as the Nigerian chapter of the RLA Campus during the Sustainability Academy (aka Home School) in Port Harcourt scheduled for November 25 and 26. The event will witness the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). It will be signed by Monika Griefahn, Uniport’s Vice Chancellor Prof Joseph Ajienka and Bassey, coordinator of the Academy.

    The new partnership will enable Uniport’s Post-Graduate scholars to have access to the corp of Right Livelihood laureates as well as exchange opportunities with four other existing campuses across the globe.

  • Memorial lecture for slain students

    A Two-day memorial programme has been planned in honour of the four slain students of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), on October 4 and 5.

    They are, Ugonna Obuzor, Lloyd Toku Mike, Tekena Friday Elkanah and Chiadika Biringa.

    This was disclosed yesterday at a news briefing in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, by the four parents.

    In a statement signed and issued at the conference, the programme, which holds in Port Harcourt, would begin with a special gospel concert by a yet to be named artist on October 4. It would end with a memorial lecture and unveiling of a foundation in their honour on October 5.

    They said the event, besides being a means to honour their late children, would serve as a means to foster their campaign against extra judicial killings in the country, poor security situation and un-conducive learning environment on the campuses, with the aim of preventing a reccurrence of what happened to theirs sons.

    To this end, the lecture’s topic would border on effective and innovative on-campus security, affordable on-campus hostel accommodation and societal values/morals, which is part of the objectives of the foundation.

    The document, which was signed on behalf of the four parents by Mr. Toku Mike and Chief Friday Elkanah, parents of Lloyd and Tekena, was read by Mr. Anthony Oguche.

  • Securing our campuses

    Eight decades ago, precisely on May 23, 1932, in Sao Paolo, Brazil, four students: Martins, Miragaia, Drausio and Camargo were shot dead by government troops while protesting the 1930 coup and the dictatorial government of Gertulio Vargas. What was their offence? They agitated for a constitutional government. Their death spurred an uprising in Sao Paolo that led to the Constitutional Revolution of 1932. Although, the main demands of the revolutionary movement was granted at the end of the day, the blood of the four students had been spilled to usher in a new era.

    In a related event, that reminds me again of the UNIPORT 4. Their case was not so different from that of the Sao Paolo 4. In fact, the UNIPORT 4 were victims of a communal sacrifice. The quartet of Ugonna Kelechi Obuzor, Mike Lloyd Toku, Biringa Chidiaka Lordson and Tekena Erikena were lynched by a heartless mob in a community that is supposed to host and protect them. The manner in which they were lynched and subsequently torched was symptomatic of the Stone Age. If Capt. William Lynch were to be alive to witness this tale of savagery, he would cry his eyes out forgetting the fact that the term ‘lynch’ was coined from his name. It is now over eight months after that incident of October 5, 2012 was staged just like one of those scenes in Spartacus, but justice has not been served.

    The Federal Polytechnic, Mubi in Adamawa State, however, witnessed one of the worst infernal carnage. The Mubi Massacre was an extermination plot of apocalyptic dimension where students were brutally butchered with reckless abandon. According to media reports, the executioners were said to have come with a hit list and a roll call was made with the respondents gruesomely slaughtered. With the contradictory reports pertaining to the actual cause of such monumental bloodbath, one can also predict the case would lead nowhere and could be swept under carpet afterwards.

    An attack on a gathering of Christian students holding services in the sport complex and lecture theatre in Bayero University, Kano State was one too many. The bitter killing of those students was needless and uncalled for. That gory incident really exposed how vulnerable our institutions are. How could the murder of those innocent students on a peaceful gathering go a long way to quench the insatiable thirst of a venomous faceless group, many are wont to ask?

    July 10, 1999 was a day students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, would not forget in a hurry. It was a day the devil descended in its full regalia to establish a throne in Awolowo Hall. The ogre was freely let loose in the university as the mortal flesh of promising young men was openly sacrificed. That onslaught marked the re-birth of a collective security awakening which could still be felt till date among the students.

    This chain of student murder underscores the apparent laxity of the government and our institution’s management in curbing the stratospheric rate of student insecurity in our campuses. In no sane society would the government assume a clueless pose when students in their intellectual treasure house are being reckless subjected to incessant butchery.

    It is no longer news that the country is engulfed with overwhelming security challenges ranging from the Boko Haram insurgency to the non-stop kidnappings. In the face of this present reality, the point here is that, there is an urgent need to acknowledge students’ security as a catalyst that will ensure a productive output from the ivory towers across the country.

    Insecurity has always been a major factor why our higher institutions earn a constant placement below that of their counterparts in neighbouring African countries. What bothers me most often is the role of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in ensuring that Nigerians students are secured in and outside their campuses. I guess student security is not captured in their agenda since all we do hear about this students’ body is its annual election and incessant toothless condemnation of unfavourable policies.

    The management of our higher institutions should, as a matter of urgent necessity, sit on a roundtable discussion with traditional and political leaders of the host communities where various student hostels are located to ensure a safe ambience in which the students would enjoy a relative peace among the indigenous people. In particular reference to the case involving the UNIPORT 4, one fact must be made clearer here. Evil is evil, no matter the colour it wears. Even if it was a case of real theft or clash of interest among cult groups, they did not deserve such a macabre punishment meted on them by people that were meant to shield them. The relationship between students and their host communities ought to be mutual in such a way that they would work hand-in-hand to ensure the security of all and sundry.

    However, we look forward to students as the future leaders that will steer the course of our nation. Therefore, a bid to protect them means protecting a national treasury. Or are we going to wait until a state of emergency is declared on our higher institutions?

     

    Taiwo is a Corps member, NYSC Ibadan

     

     

  • Part-time UNIPORT students protest fee raise

    Part-time 200-Level students of the College of Continuing Education, University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), have raised the alarm over the increment in fees by the institution.

    The students said in Port Harcourt that while other returning students have been asked to pay a reviewed N105,000 for the new session, 200-Level students are to N178,000.

    One of the students, Victor Duku, said: “We want the management to consider our plight; we don’t want to drop out of school. The new fee increment is too much for most of us who have nobody taking care of their education. We are part-time students but not all the students are working.”

    Other students, including Bright Wometi of the Accounting Department and Iheduru Michael of Philosophy, appealed to the authorities to be lenient and reduce the Year Two students fees to what other returning students are to pay.

    But, the Director, College of Continuing Education, UNIPORT, Prof. Stephen Okududu, said the hike was in tune with the increasing cost of running the programme.

    He said the college is distinct from the UNIPORT, stressing that the fees do not amount to increment as being protested by the affected students.

    Okodudu, however, advised the students to channel their grievances on the matter in writing to the university authorities.

  • UNIPORT in darkness since Jan, says VC

    The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Prof. Joseph Ajienka, has called on the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to restore power supply to the institution.

    The school has been in darkness since January.

    Ajienka said the institution was up-to-date in the payment of its electricity bills to the company.

    “The PHCN has thrown the university into darkness; this is grinding academic and administrative activities.

    “ It portends grave security implications that cannot be quantified.

    “Staff and students are no longer able to function in their offices or conduct any meaningful academic work in the laboratories and classrooms.

    “Efforts to get PHCN to install pre-paid meters in residential and administrative areas have so far been inexplicably frustrated by the company.

    “There is no correlation between the huge bills paid by the university and electricity supply by the PHCN.

    “The university is now compelled to source for electricity exclusively from its own power generating sets.

    “This means a large chunk of the resources meant for other services and critical infrastructural development is used to buy diesel.

    “The situation has become totally unbearable, to the extent that it is now affecting our capacity to carry out our core mandate of teaching, research and community service.”

    Ajienka pleaded with PHCN to return UNIPORT to the old airport line, from where it was transferred to the Ahoada grid.

    The VC added that he has contacted stakeholders to sensitise them on the grave electricity situation on the campus.

    He urged the PHCN to take urgent steps to improve the power supply, to enable UNIPORT return to normal activities.

  • Jonathan seeks peace between Uniport, Aluu

    Jonathan seeks peace between Uniport, Aluu

    •Amaechi endows chairs for Tukur, others

    President Goodluck Jonathan has called on the management of University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) to create avenue for more research on conflict management and resolution for the peaceful co-existence between host communities and the university, including the oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region.

    Jonathan, who condemned the murder of the four students of UNIPORT by the host community (Aluu) in October last year, said he is highly interested in the peace of the region which is a factor for the development of the Niger Delta region.

    The President, who was represented by the Minister of Education Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i spoke at the university’s 29th convocation at Choba, the main campus of the university during which the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi endowed five professorial chairs.

    Speaking conflict resolution, Prof Rufa’i said: “I want to inform you that President Jonathan is highly interested in the peace of the Niger Delta region, if the region must achieve development, then we must work together to achieve a conflict- free region that will allow smooth operation of companies in the region.

    “The university is another platform to achieve this goal; I strongly believe you are aware we are in the era of innovation and research, we are calling on the university to focus more on how to resolve conflict among communities and oil companies in the region through conflict management and resolution.

    “Let me remind you that that the Federal Government shows regret over the murder of the four students of this university; this is the more reason we should be conscious of internal security.”

    During the event, Governor Amaechi announced the endowment of five chairs on behalf of the government, naming them after four prominent citizens of the state – Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte (rtd), Prof. Tekena Tamuno, Prof Tam David-West, Prof. Otonti Nduka, and Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the National Chairman of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Amaechi who spoke during the event, said the state government would fund the endowments even after he leaves office.

    The governor said: “I want to endow a Chair that will be named after Justice Karibi-Whyte in the Faculty of Law. Another Chair on History and Society to be named after Prof Tekena Tamuno. I also want to endow a Chair to be named after Prof. Tam David-West; and finally, a Chair in Education and Culture to be named after Prof Otonti Odunka.

    “Again, when I say I, that I represent me as the governor of Rivers State. I just want to make sure that the Rivers State Government is able to fund these chairs; that is why I am not making it personal because even when I leave, the Ministry of Education should be able to get my successor to fund it. Let us also endow a Chair not for politics or public governance but for business named after Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.”

    Amaechi also promised to build an ultra-modern convocation arena for the university to be named after Chief Damian Nweje, who Amaechi said, showed great determination in acquiring university education.

    “I have so many heroes and I have acquired one today, a very brand new hero – Chief Damian Nweje. I have never believed that anybody has struggled more than me until I met this gentleman today as a graduate of University of Port Harcourt. I met him in politics, business, uneducated, and with no degree or certificate. I never thought in my life that I would see him with a degree. I nearly wept seeing him sitting down here and I realised that there were more determined persons. For that reason, I would name a structure that I believe we should build for the university after him,” he said.

     

  • ‘Compensate families of slain Uniport, Mubi students’

    ‘Compensate families of slain Uniport, Mubi students’

    The Executive Director of African Youth Initiatives on Crime Prevention (AYICRIP), Chris Ibe has called on the federal government to adequately compensate the families of the slain four students of University of Port Harcourt as well as the 40 killed in Mubi, Adamawa State.

    Ibe made this call at a press briefing held ahead of a two-day National Youth Symposium on Crime Prevention and Crime Prevention Award organised by AYCRIP. The award will hold on November 28 and 29, 2012 at the Conference Hall of the Ministry of Justice, Abuja.

    The programme titled: Nigeria Youths and The Roadmap to National Security, Peace and Cultural Integration: The Crime Prevention Strategy will bring together youths, security experts, government agencies and civil society groups.

    According to him, the present state of insecurity in Nigeria calls for great concern as the human and social consequences are compelling, from physical abuse, psychological and emotional trauma, to the economic and political implications of unabated crime.

    He said that the recent Mubi and Aluu incidents bring to memory the barbaric and unwholesome human relationship in the primitive era.

    “Today, our educational institutions and communities are held hostage by different groups of criminals, terrorists and cultists who also made instruments to perpetuate crime either as political thugs, kidnappers, assassins and suicide bombers.

    “We call, in strong terms, on the federal, state and local governments where the gruesome murder of our dear and promising youths took place to adequate compensate the families of the victims as it is the responsibility of government to protect not only the lives of her citizens but also properties,” he said.

    Ibe added that in the event that the government fails to compensate the families of these victims of its “carelessness as requested by us, we would be left with no other option than to seek redress with legal and civil instruments up to international level as we will no longer fold our hands and see the future of our dear nation being eroded with levity and impunity.”

    The symposium is designed to bring 500 youths together for the purpose of sensitising them on the dangers and repercussions associated with crime as well as to inspire and develop their capacity towards becoming change agents in their various communities.