The chairman of the Governing Council of the Federal Polytechnic, Ile-Iluji, Ondo State, Mr. Odey Ochicha has donated N3 million to the Cross River University of Technology, CRUTECH Alumni Association.
It was said to have sent to the Project Account of the association last week as part of his support for the ongoing Alumni centre building project.
Ochicha, who is an alumni of the University of Calabar said that for him, CRUTECH belongs to every Cross Riverian as such even though he didn’t finish from the University, he owes it a duty to support any idea that will add value to the system.
He lauded the leadership of the association for the efforts to give back to the University despite being a very young Alumni association. It would be recalled that Ochicha, a chieftain of the All Progressives
Congress was the Chairman of the launching organised by the association to raise funds for the building in 2016.
Reacting, national President of the association, Mr. Eyam Abeng said that he was overwhelmed by Ochicha’s magnanimity in adopting CRUTECH as his second alma mater.
Abeng added that, although, graduates of the University are still struggling to break even in life, they will continue to do their best to add value to the system.
He said that “I’m really overwhelmed by this gesture. They’re Cross Riverians who were and still occupying juicy positions that we met for support for the project but they either dismissed us or dribbled us.
But Ochicha’s case is different. From the day we met him during the launching, he flew all the way from Abuja to be part of us. They’re no many Cross Riverians and Nigerians out there like him. This is the highest donation we have gotten from an individual so far and we’re very grateful”.
He used the opportunity to appeal to other Cross Riverians, especially those who made vows during the election to redeem their vows to help the association complete the building before the first quarter of next year.
“We have commenced the first phase of the building which is 15 rooms Guest House. In the next two weeks, we will take it to lintel level.
So I want to appeal to those who made us promises during our launching to please, redeem their pledges so that we can complete this and move to the second phase.
God willingly, by November, we’ll commence roofing and if we can get the money promised us, by March next year, the Guest House should be fully completed and set for business. There’s no better way to support than help the University diversify it source of revenue generation”, he said.

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar