Okpebholo, Prof. Eunice Omonzejie, Accused of Burying Ambrose Alli's legacy

A public interest lawyer and alumnus of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, President Aigbokhan, has accused Governor Monday Okpebholo and the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Eunice Omonzejie, of presiding over the decay of the institution established by Prof. Ambrose Alli in 1981.

In an opinion article titled “How Okpebholo, Prof. Omonzejie Are Burying Ambrose Alli’s Legacy”, Aigbokhan said the university, built on the mantra “Knowledge for Advancement” as an egalitarian haven for children of the poor and rich, now lies in ruins.

He said AAU, which produced notable alumni including Tony Elumelu, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, Festus Keyamo, SAN, Don Jazzy and Alibaba Akpobome, has been reduced to a shadow of itself under the current administration.

According to him, a walk through the Ekpoma campus reveals criminal abandonment, with thousands of hostel rooms deserted, overgrown with weeds and stripped of fixtures, wiring and roofing by scavengers.

He alleged that the abandoned halls have become hideouts for cultists and scenes of violence, while students are forced to seek expensive and insecure private accommodation in town, leading to loss of internal revenue for the university.

Aigbokhan further decried rotting academic infrastructure, citing sagging beams, exposed wiring, shattered windows and collapsing ceilings in lecture rooms, and a central library where ceilings have caved in and books destroyed by rain.

He said laboratories in Life Sciences, Engineering and Technology lack reagents and modern equipment, forcing students to learn by imagination.

Despite the decay, he said, students pay some of the highest tuition among state-owned universities, with additional hidden charges including departmental dues, portal fees and late registration fines, while lecturers, unpaid and disillusioned, regularly abandon classes.

The lawyer said as Visitor to the university, Governor Okpebholo, an Esan son, bears ultimate responsibility, noting that while monthly subvention to the university rose from N40 million under the previous administration to N500 million, tuition remains high contrary to a manifesto promise to cut fees by 50 per cent.

“Why increase subvention and still retain towering fees? Whose interest is government serving? The poor must be allowed to breathe,” he queried.

He also accused Prof. Omonzejie’s administration of overseeing unprecedented regression, with static leadership and failure to drive funding, secure the campus or protect students.

Aigbokhan warned that if urgent action is not taken to declare a state of emergency at AAU, history will record the Okpebholo administration as the era when Esanland’s greatest academic legacy was destroyed.

He called for immediate reduction of fees, comprehensive renovation of lecture halls, libraries and laboratories, publication of names of contractors who abandoned projects, rehabilitation of hostels, security operations to clear cult hideouts, audit of levies, settlement of staff entitlements and overhaul of university governance.