By Emma Amaize

WARRI—IJAW Youth Council, IYC, raised the alarm, yesterday, that the Federal Government was starving the Nigerian Maritime University, NMU, Okerenkoko, in Delta State of funds, claiming the school was at the brink of collapse.

The Maritime University, in Okerenkoko, Delta State, visited by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, on Thursday, June 16, 2016.

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President of the council, Roland  Oweilaemi, in a statement, said: “IYC visited the school and reliably confirmed that the Federal Government has abandoned it completely.

“President Muhammadu Buhari should as a matter of urgency release funds to the school. We will resist any move to scrap the institution through starving it of funds.”

“People of goodwill should prevail on the government to do the needful before things get out of control. We cannot guarantee that the existing peace in the region will be sustained if the Federal Government keeps maintaining its cynical stand on the school.

“The pitiable condition of the institution has threatened its continued existence. The council gathered, during our unscheduled visit to the school, that the federal government only paid N2billion out of the N5billion take-off grant it has earlier pledged to pay.

“Even the N3 billion financial appropriation in the 2018 budget for the school has not been released to it. As we speak, majority of the staff have deserted the school as the institution is unable to pay its staff for many months, while the Vice Chancellor of the institution is moving around the country sourcing for funds,” he said.