Herdsmen, cattle invade and takeover FUTO

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The management of Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) has written to cattle breeders in the state about the takeover of the school by herdsmen and their animals.

It was gathered that herdsmen and their cattle invaded the school and made it impossible for the staff to access it.

The registrar of FUTO, Mr. John Nnabuihe, told Vanguard in an interview that it looked as if the herdsmen had turned the campus into a grazing area.

“It was not funny driving to the Senate Building this morning. It is baffling why herdsmen are gradually transforming FUTO premises into a cattle colony,” he said.

Nnabuihe said FUTO had taken up the matter with the branch chairman of the local cattle breeders’ association in Obinze, via a letter.

The letter dated September 4, 2019, and copied to heads of security agencies in the state, reads in part:

“I write on the authority of the vice chancellor, to draw your attention to the incessant invasion of herdsmen and their cattle on the campus of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri.

 “The sensitive nature of grazing on campus and the obvious tension it breeds among students, may ultimately lead to clashes, if not curbed. This is given the current precarious security challenges associated with open grazing,” wrote the school.

The school reminded the cattle owners that the state government had prohibited the group from grazing on the university land and its environs.

It requested the chairman to urgently intervene by directing the herdsmen to desist from grazing within the university campus.

“Please note that security agencies have been alerted to take decisive measures against anyone grazing cattle within the university environment,” it added.

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