From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
The planned relocation of the faculty of Business Administration from the Delta State University of Science and Technology, Ozoro, Isoko North Local Government Area to Orerokpe in Okpe Local Government Area is raising dust.
Stakeholders in Isoko nation are already kicking against the plot, urging Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to resist the temptation to approve the relocation of the faculty to Orerokpe in his local government area where a campus has not be built.
One of the stakeholders and chieftain of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, P. O. Oju, said Isoko people stood firm for Oborevwori’s election, saying that relocation of the faculty was not the best way to repay Isoko nation.
Oju urged the governor to have a re-think, insisting that relocating the faculty will kill Delta State University of Science and Technology, Ozoro and “bury the corpse at Orerokpe, his hometown, to create the impression that he loves his people so much.”
The former chairman of Isoko Local Government and former chairman, Isoko North PDP Elders Council warned that carrying out such a plan for a university that is barely three years old will cause tension in the state and potentially upend the harmonious relationship between the Isoko and Urhobo people.
In a statement, the Isoko leader called on the “good Orerokpe people, Urhobo people the closest to Isoko people and the peace loving people of Delta State to without delay advise my amiable governor for whom I almost lost my life mobilizing people to vote for him as my PDP candidate to go back to history and copy what H.E. Governor James Onanefe Ibori did when he wanted to establish Oghara Polytechnic.
“He did not kill Ogwashi-Uku and Ozoro Polytechnics which were almost dying. Rather, he revived them and established the Oghara Polytechnic. There was jubilation in the whole of Delta State.
“H.E.Governor Sheriff Oborevwori should not create unnecessary tension in Delta State in his time for people in Isoko to pass a vote of no confidence on PDP, our political party.
“It is my sincere and honest advice that H.E. should have listening ears and do his PDP members in Urhobo, Isoko and the whole of Delta State proud. I will not stop advising until the right thing is done,” Oju said.
Meanwhile, the Ozoro Positive Voice has cried to the governor to urgently call the chairman of the Governing Council of the university, Ambassador Godson Echegile, to order over his move to relocate the Faculty Social Sciences and Management to Orerokpe.
In the press conference held at Ozoro, leader of the group, Mr. Michael Enahoro appealed to Oborevwori to jettison the devilish move.
Enahoro said the university is a specialized one with limited courses in line with requirements of the National Universities Commission, hence the only viable faculty is the school of social sciences and management with about seven departments which is the soul and source of internally generated revenue of the institution.
He said with the upgrading of the former Ozoro Polytechnic to a university status by former Governor Okowa Ifeanyi, a lot of investors have surfaced in Ozoro thereby boosting the economic activities of the town and its environs.
Enahoro further passionately appealed to the governor to drop the resolution of the governing council on the relocation plan in order to save people’s investments in the town and avoid total collapse of the newly established institution.
Delta State University of Science and Technology, Ozoro was first established as a College of Agriculture which was turned into a Polytechnic on January 1, 2002, by the administration of former governor James Ibori.
In February 2021, immediate past governor, Ifeanyi Okowa upgraded the polytechnic to a university, the same time he established two additional universities in Asaba and Agbor.