FUTOVC Decries Land Encroachment, Activities of Speculators

The Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Professor Francis Eze, has decried the activities of land speculators and land grabber as reoccurring issue militating against the full development of the institution’s master plan and the realisation of its medical school in particular.

Eze noted that the institution had brought huge development to the host communities since the relocation of the university to her permanent site in 1993.

He also denied selling any land belonging to the university to anybody as alleged by host communities, stressing that “our original position is that the FUTO does not have the power to cede any land to anybody.”

The vice chancellor clarified that the proposal initiated by the university’s governing council requesting the federal government to approve that about 2,471.05 acres of land should be ceded to the host communities is yet to be concluded.

He further explained that the proposal is currently being deliberated on by a committee made up of the Imo State Government through the state’s commissioner for Lands, Survey and Physical Planning, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and the FUTO.

“It is unfortunate that anybody from Imo State is against our expansion. The governor and the Minister of State for Education are trying to assist us realise our goals. What the host communities’ attorney, Mr. Sam Anokam, is driving at is his personal interest. It is the pressure from the host communities that the governing council proposed a certain part of the land to host communities,” Eze said.

He also denied the allegation that he refused to give out land to host communities as ordered by the federal government.