Burnt Centre for Engineering Technology
Absence of perimetre fencing of the Federal College of Education, Eha-Amufu, Enugu State has continued to plague the institution exposing it to arson attacks and vandalism, 45 years after it was established.
Deputy Provost of the institution, Dr Samuel Odo made this known while speaking with journalists on the latest fire incident that gutted the Centre for Engineering Technology in the early hours of Tuesday March 3, 2026.
He said that management considers the porosity of the College a major reason the institution has experienced a number of arson attacks that usually result in looting of properties.
“It’s a big challenge to us. It’s a big challenge,” Odo lamented, adding that the non-construction of perimetre fencing of the institution has become a nagging problem.
The Deputy Provost addressed various insinuations and allegations circulating in the social media concerning the fire incident. He debunked insinuations that the Centre for Engineering Technology building was deliberately torched by the management to destroy documents kept in the Procurement Unit and Examinations Record Unit.
According to him, such allegations were borne out of ignorance as the Procurement Unit had been relocated to a new office a year before the fire incident. However, he stated that the fire incident was devastating as it consumed “so many things” in the burnt building.
He said: “We cried bitterly because I know so many things that we lost in that particular building – the building that is housing our exam unit, our NCE exam unit, the building that is housing our records unit, the building that is housing our postgraduate diploma in education unit, a building that is housing so many offices. Nobody will hear of that without shedding tears”.
Odo said that it was outright mischief to accuse management of being behind development the fire incident, which occurred on the eave of a meeting of the Governing Council.
“I want to tell you that management can never destroy what she has built. Management has no hand in that(fire incident) and anybody that is alleging that should be asked question because that person must know what actually happened there”.
He condemned the “wild and false allegations” and campaign of calumny against the outgoing Provost, Prof. Pauline Ngozi Ikwuegbu and her management team.
On the alleged diversion of three buses worth N300 million, the Deputy Provost explained that the vehicles came about as a constituency project which the contractor exdcuted through FCE Eha-Amufu as his advisory agent.
He said that it was clearly stated that one of the buses was for FCE Eha-Amufu while the other two buses were meant for other schools in Enugu and were successfully delivered to them as stipulated in the contractual agreement.
Odo also shed light on the TETFUND Education support fund received by the College following allegations that the Provost used the fund meant for staff to enrich her relatives, cronies and allies.
“Well, anything about TETFund is in the open market,” he said, adding that it was well documented that the Provost “gave TETFund intervention to over 70 staff here between 2018 that she came and 2024/2025”.
Odo further stated that the leadership of both academic and non-academic staff unions of the College were always carried along and asked to nominate their members to benefit from the education support funds.
He said that Prof Ikwuegbu, who became the first female Provost of FCE Eha-Amufu has done so much to develop the institution and has transparently utilised TETFUND interventions to improve the infrastructural landscape of the institution.
The Deputy Provost noted that Ikwuegbu has developed second and third campuses of the College with new buildings for Adult and Non-formal Education complex, School of languages, Early Learning Education, Vocational Technical Education, among others.
He also credited the Provost, who would be bowing out in July, with the building of a new 200-bed students hostel, 1,000 capacity students lecture hall, and construction of 2.13km ring road, as well as commencing the illusive perimetre fencing.
Aside from arson, vandalism, and stealing of properties, Odo also identified land encroachment as a major problem facing FCE Eha-Amufu because of its porousness. He said that the farming project of the institution has been disrupted by encroaching villagers, who were displaced from their farming settlements by herders.
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