CRUTECH Alumni Condemn Encroachment Into Varsity Land By Host Community, Call For Government Intervention

By Our Correspondent

The Alumni association of Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH) has lampooned the encroachment into the Institution’s land in Calabar by alleged land grabbers.

This comes less than a month after staff and other residents in the Varsity’s staff quarters in the main campus protested over the same issue amongst others.

The national President of the association, Eyam Abeng while speaking with newsmen recently described the situation as “shocking and embarrassing”, calling on the state government to urgently intervene.

Abeng lamented that the host community is taking advantage of the government’s lack of attention to the University noting that they wouldn’t have had the courage to invade the institution land during its polytechnic era and wondered why people would claim ownership of government land when the Land Use Act of the country indicates land belongs to government.

Tagging the alleged land grabbers as “unscrupulous elements”, Abeng said “I am very disappointed by the development. The Alumni is very upset because the host community is supposed to be a strategic and progressive partner to the University and not invaders. I have visited the quarters to ascertain the level of damage these unscrupulous elements have done by illegally claiming ownership of CRUTECH land.

“I won’t blame them completely because if the state government in the last 6-7 years demonstrated substantial interest in the University as the only state owned university, this would have been avoided because I know they wouldn’t have had the impetus to engage in such embarrassing act.

“I also want to use this opportunity to assure the management of the University, staff and students that they are not in this fight alone. The alumni will as a matter of fact, use every available means within the ambit of the law to reclaim the already trespassed land while moving expediently to stop further encroachment.”

Expressing fear over the security situation in the University as a result of the encroachment, Abeng appealed to Governor Ben Ayade to set up a special patrol team to beef up security in the institution.