The Vice Chancellor of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Professor Greg Nwakoby has said that the management of the institution is making prompt efforts to checkmate the spate of road accidents claiming students’ lives along the major road leading to the Igbariam Campus of the school, African News Today gathered.
Professor Nwakoby who disclosed this in an interview with Anambra Broadcasting Service, in his Igbariam Campus office, noted that decisive steps have already been taken to ensure that the rising tragedy is permanently averted.
The atmosphere around the Igbariam Campus of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, had become gloomy, perilous and tense after three students of the university died in three separate autocrashes along the major road leading to the institution in the space of three days from Friday, November 13th to Sunday, November 15th, 2020.
Two of those three tragic accidents involved commercial motorcycles, a means of conveyance that the students seemed to have found faster and most convenient given the ample kilometers separating the campus in Igbariam, Anambra East Local Government Area, from the main students’ resident area in Awkuzu, Oyi Local Government Area.
One of the victims of the fatal accident which happened on Friday, November 13, 2020, Miss Chinecherem Anyacho, from Amichi, Nnewi South Local Government Area, is said to be the only daughter of her parents.
Speaking to the ABS, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Nwakoby, who had already released a press statement noting that an immediate response would be taken to nip the ugly trend, stated that the Anambra State Commissioner of Works, Engineer Marcel Ifejiofor, and that of Transport, Mr Uchenna Okafor, had followed him to the sites of the crashes, after which it was agreed that speed limit bumps would be constructed on the road to help checkmate overspeeding which is the major cause of the accidents
Professor Nwakoby also noted an official letter had been sent to Governor Willie Obiano to brief him on the development, stating that while private sectors are encouraged to invest in students’ accommodation in the university, three new hostels being constructed inside the school by the institution’s management would be ready next year to save the precarious situation of having the students come to school from far where there their hostels are located.
In a telephone interview, the President of the Student Union Government in the Igbariam Campus of the university, Comrade Kizito Okemadu, who expressed sadness at the ugly circumstance, called on the state government to intervene urgently in the situation by providing buses to convey the students to and fro the school and to also put a ban on motorcycles plying the road.