By Sylvia Akpan
A counter petition has been filed against allegations levelled against Dr. Richard Utubaku, the Provost of Federal College of Education (FCE) Obudu, by a section of chiefs in Urban Ward 1, Obudu Local Government Area of Cross River State, in “Utubaku Must Go” protest.
The counter petition was contained in a letter written to the Honourable Minister of Education, Federal Secretariat, Abuja dated 3rd April, 2025 and jointly signed by Ugwakong Emmanuel and Beshel Moses – President and Secretary of Ipong Youth Council, respectively.
The letter copied the Paramount Ruler of Obudu Local Government Area chairman, Divisional Police Officer, Obudu Division and the Youth Council, Obudu Chapter.
The group in the letter said that the embattled Dr. Utubaku is not the greatest mistake to be made a provost as stated by the petitioners, but has done well as compared to past administrations in areas of Infrastructures and administrative discipline.
They accused the chiefs of trying to bring down the institution with their selfish interests, with their claims lacking merit and are borne out of sentiment and malicious tendencies to dent the image and reputation of the provost.
The letter reads in part “Sequel to the filed petition dated 25th of March, 2025 by the Chiefs of Urban ward 1 in Collaboration with their youth. With intense aversion, we wish to categorically state that urban ward I is one ward out of the ten Wards of Obudu LGA with no sole discretion to take decisions without the consent of the other nine Wards.
“Reacting to their claims categorically, Dr. Utubaku is not the greatest mistake to be made a provost as assumed by the petitioners, he has done remarkably well as compared to the past administrations in terms of Infrastructures and administrative discipline.
“The issue of not granting students access to writing the CBT as insinuated by the principal of School of Nursing Science Obudu was baseless considering the fact discovered after thorough enquiry, we discovered she never followed due process to securing the hall but rather rendering abuses on the provost because he rescheduled a meeting with her on Monday (10:am) after a letter was lately sent via her vice principal on Saturday to the provost in his residence. She blatantly refused to show up to validate the time and day as to when the Examinations were to be written. The next action after the failed agreement was to see youths with placards on the street.
“Additionally, the purported college laptops never got lost in 2023, as reported in their petition, it was early this year during the JAMB registration that the ICT Director discovered some laptops were missing from the library where the CBT center is hosted. The provost swung into action and a committee was set up to investigate those who were involved and a report was presented to the governing council in their February 14th meeting. More so, the language block as insinuated was not awarded during Dr. Utubaku’s tenure, it is a TETfund project that never came with furniture. This can be verified from the contract papers. Considering the effect of admission, it is a nationwide problem that is not restricted to FCE Obudu, which is why the Federal Government introduced a dual mode to attract more students.
“Furthermore, under the present administration, there has been so much development within the college infrastructural facilities together with academic excellence. The Provost in his bid, single handedly brought the Minister to FCE Obudu to commission the TETfund project. The Provost is presently constructing a 500 capacity CBT center, which is 95% completion, a completed 58 offices of academic staff block, academic conference hall with offices, entrepreneurship center completed and in use, renovation of offices and classrooms across both campuses, Dr. Utubaku also established a water factor in the College and many other achievements.
“Furthermore, since Dr. Utubaku took over as Provost of the College in 2022, there has been ‘peace in the college, devoid of students’ unrest and unnecessary complaints. We are not surprised why the agitators who are neither staff nor students of the college but just a section of persons in Urban Ward I, Obudu local Government Area, are trying to bring down the institution with their selfish interests.
“Right from time immemorial there has been a series of petitions against anybody from Ipong Ward/other wards handling any sensitive position in Obudu Local Government Area of Cross River State, example; in 2022 before Dr. Utubaku became provost, there was a petition from Urban Ward I Youth restraining him from becoming the provost but all to futility wants the right thing to be done.
“Conclusively, we wish to emphatically say that, their claims lack merit and it’s born out of sentiment and malicious tendencies to dent the image and reputation of the provost. From this premise, we wish to say that the allegations leveled against him are politically founded and baseless, as such it should not be considered as valid.”
Leave feedback about this