The University of Jos (UNIJOS) has hired local hunters to protect students on campus and their hostels amid the heightened state of insecurity in Nigeria.
Sebastian Maimako, the institution’s vice-chancellor (VC), broke the news on Tuesday during the valedictory session to mark the end of his five-year tenure.
Over the past couple of years, academic institutions have been targeted in multiple attacks and abductions by armed men.
“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,” Sebastian said.
“When we got a security report that we were the soft target, we close our hostels for almost two weeks and suspended lectures eventually. 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, has offered to train these hunters on the rule of engagement in their working in the university.”
The VC said apart from his collaboration with security experts, which led to the significant drop in crime in the university, the institution recorded other tremendous achievements under his leadership.
He noted that his administration, during the period under review, initiated and completed 85 projects which have been inaugurated.
According to him, 43 of the varsity’s programmes have full accreditation status while 30 programmes have interim accreditation status out of 75 programmes which the institution was to run.
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