The committee members made their position known during discussions on the omission of the Eastern rail corridor in the 2016-2018 external borrowing plan.

Sen. Philip Gyunka, the Vice-Chairman of the committee, said instead of building new universities, the faculties of engineering in existing institutions could be upgraded to perform in various transport capacities.

“Rather than establishing a new university, why not look at the competences that exist in our existing structures and build them up?,

“We have enough universities already. It is better we look at quality and not quantity adding to the rate of unemployed graduates,“ Gyunka said.

He said that the Maritime Academy, Oron, Cross River, could serve the same purpose for training Nigerians on special transport fields.

Sen. Enyinaya Abaribe said instead of building a new university just to train Nigerians on rail maintenance, they could be sent abroad for training.

He said that the Chinese Government could not be building a transport university free as they were not philanthropists.

“Nigeria railways have been in existence for so many years and was run without building a new university, we want you to look at this matter again.

“The reason that we have engineering departments and faculties in universities is so that if you have funding you can take them abroad. Why won’t you upgrade them?

“Why must we set up another brand new university? It doesn’t in any way enhance people. What is the Nigeria Railway Corporation doing?

“We have good engineering students in Lagos, in Zaria that can be trained, the Chinese Government are not doing us any favour, the university cannot be free and they are not Father Christmas,“ Abaribe said.

However, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, said that there was no issue if the committee wanted the idea of the university of transportation dropped.

Amaechi said that the Chinese Government had agreed to build the university free to train Nigerians that would continue to run the rail lines.

“You will agree with me that the quality of education is very low and we are not spending anything to establish this university.

“It is the contractor and the Chinese Government that will establish this university. They will import the teachers, who will teach and grow knowledge, the graduates of that school will become teachers.

“This university is not a university for engineering alone, it is a university of transportation that will deal with railway transportation, aviation and maritime, we are looking at two universities, it will be a specialised university.“

He said that the Chinese Government would train Nigerians free before handing over the rail projects.

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A statement signed by Capt. Shuaib Umar, spokesman of the brigade, and made available to newsmen on Sunday in Uyo, said that the arrest followed a successful raid on hideouts of armed cultists at Oku and Itu bridges.

The bridges are located at the boundary between Akwa Ibom and Cross River States.

“During the raid, we arrested 17 cultists with assorted arms and ammunition including two G3 rifles, two pump action rifles, five locally made pump action rifles, and four G3 magazines.

“We also recovered 16 machetes, 125 rounds of 7.62 mm NATO, 223 live cartridges, among others.

“Also recovered were a pair of military camouflage uniform, a camouflage T shirt, camouflage singlet, a cardigan, 10 mobile phones, a bag of charms, a bag of clothes and one wrap of Indian hemp,” the statement said.

It further said that the army recovered N29,700 cash and three motorcycles.

The statement quoted Maj. Gen. Abdu Ibrahim Hassan, the brigade commander, as assuring members of the public of adequate protection against miscreants and cultists.

“We shall do everything possible to rid the area of such irritants, but our success will depend on the support we get from members of the people; everyone must be ready to report any form of crime to us,” he said.

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