By Chioma Onuegbu

EKET- AUTHORITIES  of the University of Uyo, UNIUYO, Akwa Ibom State, have decried the persistent and aggressive incursion into the university land at the main campus by locals from the host Ekamba Nsukara and Use Offot host communities and others.

NDV gathered that the continuous infringement and the alarming rate at which illegal structures were springing up on the university land in recent times, prompted the university authorities, recently, to   embark on re-establishing the university boundaries to reclaim appropriated portion of lands through the surveyor- general of the state.

VC expresses concern

Reacting to the worrisome issue last Friday, the Vice- Chancellor of the university, Professor Enefiok Essien, expressed fears that if the menace was not urgently addressed, it could deprive the university community of land meant for expansion and other developmental projects.

Essien noted that the interlopers had even planted traditional boundary sticks (Okono) on the university land, saying: “Land encroachment is a perennial problem in the university and I think the major solution to it is money to develop the land. If there is money to develop the land, the area for encroachment will not be there again.

“And the thing is, if this problem is not urgently addressed, it will deprive the university of land for critical, recreational, municipal and other developmental purposes.

Waiting for A’Ibom govt

“However, government has promised to intervene. In fact, the state government has set up a committee to interface with the locals to ensure resolution of the encroachment saga.

The committee is headed by the deputy governor to show the importance the governor attaches to it,” he said.

According to him, “We have not had a resolution yet. The encroachment is still continuing but we will try the much we can to keep it at bay. And we hope that before long, an eventual solution will be found which will be permanent”

Devt ongoing in the university

Explaining further, Prof Essien said that expansion programme is  ongoing on  the campus, adding that development of more structures like the Art Gallery recently built and donated by the wife of the state governor, Mrs. Martha Udom Emmanuel, for the university in honour of her late mother, the late Professor Stella Bernard Idiong, was a highly commendable effort.

He disclosed that more structures will come up as the university receives approval from TETFUND project to be developed.

The vice-chancellor appealed to the state governor to do something urgent to stop the trespassers.

Authorities probe emergence of new structures   A source who did not want his name in print, told NDV that the university authorities were carrying out investigations into most of the houses erected from the entrance of the main campus.

“I want to believe that once the university authorities complete their investigations on re-establishing the university boundaries, most of the structures you see as you enter through the main entrance will be pulled down.  “An indigene of this community and a close friend told me that most of those structures are within the university land. What happened was that the land had been left without being developed for too long, so some indigenes of the communities took the advantage to sell them,” he asserted.

The source added: “Unfortunately, the people who buy from them do not even know that those areas belong to the university. I think the authorities are just waiting for the ongoing re-establishment of the boundaries for them to pull down those structures.”