Imo State Government has converted the Eastern Palm University, Ogboko, established and owned by former Governor Rochas Okorocha, to a campus of the Imo State University (IMSU).
The House of Assembly had passed a law allotting a 90 per cent equity shares to trustees of the Rochas Foundation and 10 per cent to the government.
At a news conference on Wednesday, chairman of the committee on the review of newly-established tertiary institutions, Prof. Jude Njoku, said the committee established a prima facie case that Eastern Palm University was established with state funds.
The committee also recommended that the Imo State University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Aboh/Okpala, and the University of Science and Technology, Umuna, should remain campuses of the Imo State University.
Njoku said the committee recommended that Aboh/Okpala be made the campus for agriculture and veterinary medicine, while Umuna will be for engineering as earlier conceived.
The committee also scrapped all polytechnics established towards the end of Okorocha’s administration and recommended that two of the newly-established polytechnics be converted to campuses of the Imo State Polytechnic, Umuagwo, while the other two be converted to model technical schools.
Prof. Njoku said the College of Education (Technical), Egbema, was recommended for reversion to its former status of secondary school.
The committee also recommended that the appointments of all vice-chancellors and provosts be terminated while the governing councils of colleges of education, Ihitte Uboma and Umuagwo, be dissolved and reconstituted.
