UNIABUJA building perimeter fence to wade off bandits, says VC

Owing to the incessant abduction of students across the country, the vice-chancellor of the University of Abuja, Prof. Abdul- Rasheed Na’Allah, has said the institution has begun construction of a perimeter fence to protect students from attacks.

Na’Allah said this during a courtesy visit to the palace of Emir of Suleja, Alhaji Awwal Ibrahim.

The VC said the university had set up a joint patrol team in collaboration with security agencies to monitor communities within the institution.

“The university is working closely with security agencies. The federal government had approved some money for us to fence the university and that fencing structure has started to take place,” Na’Allah said.

“But more than that, we have regular community meetings on security as we are also monitoring the entire communities within the university. We have people who do joint security patrols regularly and we are doing all these because if we have a disruption in the university system, there is going a major chaos. These students are young children in our custody therefore we cannot afford to sleep”.

Noting that community development was paramount to the university, the vice-chancellor said the purpose of his visit was to solicit the emir’s support in uplifting the institution.

He said: “Our university takes cognizance of national unity that is why all local government areas and states are duly represented in our admissions. That is why we also established the centre for community development to get resources around the country and promote development. The centre is to ensure that we do the right thing on issues like admission, building infrastructure and so on. ”

Responding, Emir of Suleja, Alhaji Awwal Ibrahim, thanked the VC for the visit, noting that it was the first a head of the institution was visiting the emirate.

The emir sought the collaboration with the university that could culminate into the establishment of satellite campuses and outreach programmes in the community.

“As a community, we have been making tremendous sacrifices for the success of the university since its establishment but yet no head of the institution has ever visited the emirate. We have also been yearning for the presence of a tertiary institution in Suleja but we are yet to get it. I am sure that with this visit, we can always count on the support from the university.”