It was a heartbreaking Monday for the students and staff if Federal College of Education, Eha-Amufu, Isi-Uzo local government area of Enugu state following a sudden incident which engulfed one of the buildings in the college.
Uche Stanley, a staffer of the college told WITHIN NIGERIA that the fire incident which occurred on Monday night destroyed huge building that housed exams and records, procurement unit and other critical administrative departments in the college.
Though the cause of the fire incident is yet to be ascertained at the time press time, it was gathered that this is coming after few days of N300m corruption scandals against the provost of the college.
Pictures obtained by our reporter showed that the building completely burnt to ashes with documents, furniture and equipment reduced to rubble.
Ugwu Everestus, an academic staff of the college told WITHIN NIGERIA that ” we came to work here on Tuesday to see that the building housing procurement, exams and records of our institution had been burnt to ashes.”
Narrating further, Mr. Ugwu stated that ” what baffled all of us is that there is no bush burning to suggest that the fire came from there. Again, as I speak with you, there is no electricity supply in our college at the time the incident occurred.
“This building we are talking about is very critical building, I should say. This is because it houses the following: Exams Unit; Records Unit; Sandwich Unit; PDE Unit; Governing Council Chambers; Academic Board; Integrated Science Lab; Several staff offices; and procurement Unit.
” This is just to show you the extent of damage this fire incident has caused in the college.”
Lamenting the fire incident, he questioned; “What is the fate of students whose results were consumed in the inferno? What happens to the destiny of someone who graduated in 2012 that requests for his/her transcript?
“Those whose certificates are still with the institution, what is their fate now? You can now see with me that the damage is far beyond ordinary building destruction. It has completely erased more than 90% records of students of the college.
WITHIN NIGERIA also gathered that what baffled many staff and students at the college was the fact that despite being surrounded by trees and other buildings, the fire succeeded in burning down only the building.
However, many insider sources alleged that the fire may not be unconnected to ongoing petitions and investigations bordering on financial misappropriation and diversion of college assets by some officials of the college.
According to one source, “this fire incident may not be unconnected with the allegations of misappropriation and stealing of the college vehicles by the outgoing Provost to ensure there’s no documents to prosecute her for fraud and criminal diversion of college vehicles and embezzlement of funds.”
Recall that the outgoing provost of the college, Pauline N. Ikwuegbu had been accused of diverting N300m worth of vehicles meant for the college, an allegation she has strongly denied.
However, in a press statement on February 27, the college clarified that the three 15-seater mini-buses supplied in 2023 were part of a constituency project executed by Oversoom Global Investment Services Limited, with FCE Eha-Amufu serving only as a supervisory agency.
According to the statement, the buses were allocated to three different institutions in Enugu State: FCE Eha-Amufu; Nasfat Nasrul-Lahi-L-Faith Society, Ibagwa-Aka; and Al-Ikhlas Institute, Ibagwa-Aka.
The college explained that the two buses in question were duly delivered to Nasfat and Al-Ikhlas Institute in 2023 and remain in their custody, dismissing claims that they were diverted to the Provost’s private school.
It added that delivery documents, allocation papers, images and videos acknowledging receipt by the benefiting institutions were available for verification.
On the allegation concerning the Toyota Prado, the college stated that the vehicle was officially approved for procurement by the institution’s Governing Council during its 100th meeting held on September 11, 2021, following recommendations from the Finance and General Purposes Committee.
Our source, however alleged that despite petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), no decisive action had been taken against the provost.”
Eucharia Eze is a graduate of the institution.
She told our reporter that the college is not alien to the fire incident.
“Back then when we were in the college in 2010, we usually had this kind of incident. In fact, in particular occasion, we just discovered that fire was ravaging the exams and records of the college. Some of the male students had to save the situation by climbing to the roof of the building and started pulling off the roofing sheets.
“Throughout my three years stay in the institution, I can tell you that we have had such ugly incident more than four times, most of them at critical sections of the college.”
However, in the present incident all efforts to get the reaction of the college Public Relations Officer, PRO proved abortive as he was not picking his call.