From Gyang Bere, Jos

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Jos, Prof Sabastine Maimako, said the Institution has employed the services of local hunters to protect students in their hostels at night.

Prof Maimako disclosed this on Tuesday during the valedictory session to mark the end of his five-year tenure in office as Vice Chancellor of the Institution, held at the Facility of Social Sciences of the University of Jos.

‘It is no longer news that the security situation in the country is quite tenuous. This is why under my administration, we made frantic efforts to ensure that all lives and property within the university are adequately protected.

‘When we got a security report that we were the soft target, we close our hostels for almost two weeks and suspended lecturers eventually. Now before we could reopen, we were given a condition that we must employ the services of local hunters to help us secure our hostels, particularly at night.

‘Today, this is where we are but thank God, the Director of Peace and Conflict Studies looking at the happening, he has offered to train these hunters on the rule of engagement in their working in the university.”

He noted that the Institution has collaborated with various security experts for the significant drop in crime on campus where some staff were recruited to address the deficits in security personnel.

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Prof. Maimako no noted that Insecurity appears to be one of the greatest threats to education and funding, particularly in public institutions in Nigeria.

He said under the period of five years when he served as Vice Chancellor, his administration initiated and completed 85 projects which have been commissioned.

The VC explained that out of the 75 programmes in which the Institution was been run, 43 has full accreditation status while 30 programmes have interim accreditation status.

Prof Maimako noted that the management had a robust welfare programme for staff until the introduction of IPPIS for universities by the federal government.

He appreciated President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State for giving him the needed support to impact meaningfully on the University of Jos.

Maimako admonished staff and students to accord the same cooperation and support to his successor in the interest of growth and development of the Institution.