COVID-19: FUTO reach out to host communities

Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri

In a bid to prevent the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic spreading in Imo State, the management of the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) has set up a COVID-19 Advisory Committee to provide public information and adequate preventive measures.

Vice-Chancellor of the institution Professor Francis Eze disclosed this in a press statement he made available to journalists through the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Institution and Secretary of the Advisory Committee, Mrs Uche Bright Nwelue.

According to the statement, the VC has set up the committee with an overriding objective of arming the institution with adequate information on the virus and the preventive strategies to tackle it.

The team, according to Eze, is comprised of eminent professors and directors from related fields of the health sector as well as university administrators who he said have since gone on outreach visits to host communities where they met with traditional rulers to drive the message to the grassroots.

The traditional rulers visited, according to Eze, are Eze K E Odu of Agwa, Ihiagwa, Eze L.I Ajoku of Ihiagwa, Eze Enyinnaya of Obinze, Eze G Ejimogu of Umuanunu Obinze, Eze R N Osuji of Eziokele Eziobodo and Eze L I N Okoro also of Eziobodo.

Briefing the chiefs earlier in their respective palaces on the essence of their mission, the Chairman of the FUTO COVID-19 Advisory Committee, Professor P U Agbasi enumerated some of the measures which both indigenes and residents of the areas should adopt to avert the virus.

Agbasi stated that the mission of the Committee is part of the social corporate responsibility of the university to its host communities.