Hundreds of students of the state-owned tertiary institutions in Ogun on Tuesday stormed the Oke Mosan office of the Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, to protest the state of education in the state.
But barely two hours after the students’ protest, the state government sacked the Rector of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Prof. Oludele Itiola.
The students under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students were protesting against the delay in the commencement of the second semester examination at the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta.
They were also agitating against the hike in the acceptance fees of the Olabisi Onabanjo University and refusal of the government to pay the West African Examinations Council fee of the students of public secondary schools in the state, among others.
The protest, which kicked off at Abiola Way in Abeokuta, was tagged ” Rescue Ogun State Education Campaign with the students carrying placards with various inscriptions such as ” Save Ogun State Education,” “MAPOLY Must Survive,” “Education Must Survive” and others.
The Chairman of NANS in the state, Olawale Balogun, who led the other students, told Governor Amosun that the students were not pleased with the state of education in Ogun and urged the government to urgently find a solution to the problems.
Amosun, however, said that the government was doing everything possible to improve the standard of education in the state, saying MAPOLY lecturers were responsible for the delay in the commencement of the second semester examination at the institution.
The governor, however, assured the students none of their lecturers in the school would be sacked.
He said, “I am not happy because this is my school. What is happening today is because those that have been given the privilege to serve us are not serving well.
” Everybody here (current MAPOLY students) will finish their courses. It will take four years before MAPOLY will go into extinction, You are not going to Ipokia . If the lecturers don’t want that, we will sort them out.
“They cannot hold us to Ransom, they will explain to us why there is delay but it cannot be because we are creating new schools. We are only admitting ND 1. We are not admitting any student to Mapoly. We are not sacking anybody, we are not taking them automatically. Why should we carry another place’s problem to a new one.
“We are only admitting ND one. If you have carryover, you are going to Ipokia. I told them (management) don’t admit new students into MAPOLY.
“Education will be free at the primary and secondary schools; for tertiary we will subsidise it.”
But barely two hours after the governor addressed the protesting students, the Secretary to the State Government, Taiwo Adeolu, announced the sack of the MAPOLY rector.
