WED, SEPTEMBER 2016-Academic activities at the Maritime Academy of Nigeria Oron, MAN, has been grounded following the freezing of the accounts of the institution on the orders of Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi. Expectedly, maritime stakeholders have reacted angrily to the development insisting the Minister lacked the constitutional powers to freeze the institution’s accounts.
The academy has been without a substantive Rector since the former Rector, Dr Joshua Okpo died on December 9 last year. Ironically, an rector, Dr Anthony Asiodu who was appointed after Okpo’s death died in mysterious circumstances seven months after in July this year.
Investigations revealed that Amaechi’s action may have been prompted by a petition allegedly authored by the bursar of the institution, Mr Folorunsho Kayode and forwarded to the Minister. Sources at the academy revealed that Kayode has been at daggers drawn with the Registrar of the Academy Mr Mkpadiok N. Mkpadiok who the late acting rector handed over to shortly before he proceeded on sick leave in June. Both men it was learnt have commenced intense lobby to be appointed rector.
Kayode is relying on his contacts at the ministry while Mkpadiok is an indigene of Oron, the seat of the academy. There are however discordant notes from stakeholders who insist Amaechi should be held responsible should there be a break down in law and order for poor response in handling the myriad of problems facing the academy.
Our source say a former Rector of the Academy Mr Ebong Nseyen is heading to Abuja this week armed with a letter of appeal to intervene immediately.
“Am going to urge him specifically to de freeze the accounts of the Academy immediately,” he told our source in Uyo. Mr Mkpadiok was said to have visited the former rector to solicit his assistance in resolving the impasse.
In his reaction an Abuja based rights activists and lawyer Barr Patrice Okwarra said, MAN, Oron is a self accounting institution and that to that extent, Amaechi lacks the powers to freeze her accounts. We should be careful what we do as public officers, we can recall that one of the first decisions he took on assumption of office was the shutdown of the Maritime University Okerenkoko, now he wants to kill MAN, Oron’, Okwarra concluded.
Another legal practitioner Barr Peter Egbegih advised Amaechi to stop making hasty decisions that are detrimental to law and order and likely to cause a breach of public peace. Said Egbegih, “If his action is not backed by any known law of the land then it remains an illegality.”
But in a quick reaction, Mr Kayode, the bursar of the academy denied any hand in the said petition, neither was he interested in the position of the Rector. When our correspondent visited the academy the entire academy was overgrown with weeds and rubbish which had remained uncleared and posing a serious health hazard. The academy has become a ghost town as academic and non academic activities have been brought to a complete stop.
