Students burn classrooms
•One million boys sack Ibadan
•LAUTECH students take-on gov
•Youths stand up to Police over alleged ritualist
By Ola Ajayi
THE restiveness of youths in Oyo State is assuming a very dangerous dimension. There have been a series of violent protests in the state with some resulting in causalities. For sometime now, it has been a recurring decimal. Apart from the pupils of primary and secondary schools who sacked Ibadan metropolis when the government tried to introduce some reform in the education sector, some secondary students had burnt their classrooms to protest cancellation of automatic promotion which forced many of them to repeat. Menace of one million boys: About four weeks ago, some parts of the city were engulfed in crisis where two groups known as ‘one million boys’, and ‘Indomie Boys Abe Igi’ held the whole city to ransom. By the time the dust settled, two persons were reported dead, while vehicles were vandalised. Up till now, residents of Beere, Born Photo, Mapo, Idi-Aro, Akala Way are not sleeping with their eyes closed. LAUTECH students take-on Gov Ajimobi Just as people of the city are heaving a sigh of relief, students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso took to the streets to protest closure of their institution for the past eight months. Before they went to the government secretariat, they had sounded a warning signal to the security agents telling them that it was their attitude that would determine whether the protest would be peaceful or violent.
Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi (far right) addressing some students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, who staged a peaceful protest to his office against the continued closure of the college, in Ibadan
Though, the protest started on a peaceful note at Mokola area of the city, it nearly went out of control as they got to the entrance of the Oyo State secretariat where the governor addressed them. They had stormed the secretariat which houses the office of the state governor to register their displeasure at the alleged lackadasical attitude of the governors of the two owner states, Oyo and Osun. The students led by Sodunola Obafemi, from Obafemi Awolowo University, Sanyaolu Juwon, National Secretary of Alliance of Nigerian Students against neo-liberal attacks, Omoakin Monsurudeen, Fawole Israel Opeyemi, Omole Ibukun and Ajayi Moyosore, said, “Our university has now been deserted due to an industrial action that has lingered for over seven months. Numerous protests had been staged to call both governments to the altar of reason; demanding the immediate re-opening of LAUTECH. While the embattled governors remain adamant on the need to adequately fund the institution and pay the salaries/allowances of the striking unions. “We strongly advise the state governments to desist from such disruptive plans. The fee increase, as allegedly proposed by Governor Ajimobi at a town hall meeting, would raise the fee of the school to about N350, 000. Immediate re-opening But the comment of the governor of Oyo State, Ajimobi, as reported on December 19, 2016 that ‘there are universities that operate without subvention’ indicated that the state governments are not interested in the funding of the university, as the government audaciously compares the institution to private universities.” Apparently empathising with them, Governor Ajimobi suspended the meeting he was attending to address the angry students. But, to his utter dismay, he got more than he bargained for. In fact, some unprintable comments of the students have gone viral. It was so tense that government had to post a more comprehensive version of the comments to reduce the embarrassment it caused. As the governor scolded them for being unruly, the students, on the other hand, like ‘bottled leopards’ replied with much venom. “The governor, who was offended by the comments of the students said, “some of you ought to have respect for constituted authority no matter what. If someone of my calibre should come here to address you, you have to respect that singular action. It is not a new thing for schools to be closed. You are singing that it will be tough, is it me that it will be tough for?” As he was talking, some of the students were making some abusive comments which prompted the governor to ask the security men to bring one of them to him. As the security agents moved towards him, his colleagues fenced him from them. The governor then used his maturity as he instructed the security agents to leave him so as to avoid escalation of the matter. The governor spoke further: “They told me students are out here and I suspended my meeting to be here. Do you want to hear me? When they call someone a student, he is always patient. If you guys come here and I heard that you are here and I came out to meet you, if you don’t want me to talk to you, you shouldn’t have come here. If you say you are students, part of the responsibilities of students is to have respect. Do you recognise me as governor. If you recognise me as governor and I heard that you are here and I stood up to listen to you. Is insult the next thing for you guys? If you want to listen, then listen. It is not by fighting and being unruly. Students of nowadays are engaging. Any time you are going somewhere, you go with a view to engaging the person. It is not for you to come here and be singing it will be tough. You should be orderly. You have no respect for the governor of a state. What kind of students are you? Quality of our education “You came here, we were holding a meeting. I came here to meet you and then you are insulting me. Even, if we fight, the next thing is how do we solve it. Is it by fighting? You owe me an apology. I am not angry. I only want to plead with you. I called the governor of Osun State and we spoke at length and agreed that we should help these students. “They have been away for eight months and we also agreed that we will bring minimum of N250m each. The vice chancellor agreed to be here and the ones who in their wisdom closed the institution. I am only begging you for engagement. Students of today are more engaging. We are looking for every opportunity to improve on the quality of our education and the system. They must open the school before the end of January”. Governor Ajimobi speaks on youth restiveness: The governor, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Communication and Strategy, Mr. Yomi Layinka, described restiveness of youths as a challenge that should be the concern of everybody and is an urgent problem that government at all levels should tackle. The youths should be productively engaged. We should engage them in both formal and informal levels. At informal level, as our own part, the government has put some agricultural programmes in place for young people to become people who can take care of food security. In formal level, education is being comprehensively looked into. Government is not unaware of those challenges that youths have. The challenges have deep social implications. Comprehensive plans are in pipeline for youth engagement. Police warn: The State Public Relations Officer, SP Adekunle Ajisebutu, said, “The Oyo State CP, Sam Adegbuyi warned them against violent protest, while advising that they should seek audience with governors of Oyo and Osun where possible and articulate their grievances in writing. “The meeting was part of proactive measures to forestall breakdown of law and order by the students or any group in any part of the state. Consequently, in order to avert crisis, the CP has placed all area commanders, DPOs and other field commanders on red alert as it is feared that the protest may be hijacked by hoodlums with ulterior motives. Meanwhile, adequate security has been provided to prevent breakdown of law and order that may arise as a result of the protest.” Youths stood up to Police over alleged ritualist: Just last week, some youths attacked policemen who tried to prevent them from executing jungle justice on a man who was allegedly caught with a human head at Olomi area of Ibadan metropolis. The incident led to the death of one man and arrest of 27 suspects. According to sources, after the man was caught with the head, he was beaten black and blue by the angry youths. The suspect was said to have dialed his phone trying to call a policeman to rescue him. The mob reportedly snatched the phone from him and checked the numbers he had on his phone. It was later discovered that he had numbers of four different Divisional Police Officers. The youths went wild when they discovered the phone numbers sensing that the suspect could be released because of his alleged closeness to the security agents. All efforts by the policemen deployed to the scene to make the youths see reason were rejected and this compelled the policemen to use tear gas cannisters to disperse them. This action of the police escalated the crisis as the youths allegedly attacked them with dangerous weapons. The policemen allegedly opened fire to scare them and in the process, a stray bullet hit one of them killing him immediately.
Source: Vanguard
•One million boys sack Ibadan
•LAUTECH students take-on gov
•Youths stand up to Police over alleged ritualist
By Ola Ajayi
THE restiveness of youths in Oyo State is assuming a very dangerous dimension. There have been a series of violent protests in the state with some resulting in causalities. For sometime now, it has been a recurring decimal. Apart from the pupils of primary and secondary schools who sacked Ibadan metropolis when the government tried to introduce some reform in the education sector, some secondary students had burnt their classrooms to protest cancellation of automatic promotion which forced many of them to repeat. Menace of one million boys: About four weeks ago, some parts of the city were engulfed in crisis where two groups known as ‘one million boys’, and ‘Indomie Boys Abe Igi’ held the whole city to ransom. By the time the dust settled, two persons were reported dead, while vehicles were vandalised. Up till now, residents of Beere, Born Photo, Mapo, Idi-Aro, Akala Way are not sleeping with their eyes closed. LAUTECH students take-on Gov Ajimobi Just as people of the city are heaving a sigh of relief, students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso took to the streets to protest closure of their institution for the past eight months. Before they went to the government secretariat, they had sounded a warning signal to the security agents telling them that it was their attitude that would determine whether the protest would be peaceful or violent.
Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi (far right) addressing some students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, who staged a peaceful protest to his office against the continued closure of the college, in IbadanThough, the protest started on a peaceful note at Mokola area of the city, it nearly went out of control as they got to the entrance of the Oyo State secretariat where the governor addressed them. They had stormed the secretariat which houses the office of the state governor to register their displeasure at the alleged lackadasical attitude of the governors of the two owner states, Oyo and Osun. The students led by Sodunola Obafemi, from Obafemi Awolowo University, Sanyaolu Juwon, National Secretary of Alliance of Nigerian Students against neo-liberal attacks, Omoakin Monsurudeen, Fawole Israel Opeyemi, Omole Ibukun and Ajayi Moyosore, said, “Our university has now been deserted due to an industrial action that has lingered for over seven months. Numerous protests had been staged to call both governments to the altar of reason; demanding the immediate re-opening of LAUTECH. While the embattled governors remain adamant on the need to adequately fund the institution and pay the salaries/allowances of the striking unions. “We strongly advise the state governments to desist from such disruptive plans. The fee increase, as allegedly proposed by Governor Ajimobi at a town hall meeting, would raise the fee of the school to about N350, 000. Immediate re-opening But the comment of the governor of Oyo State, Ajimobi, as reported on December 19, 2016 that ‘there are universities that operate without subvention’ indicated that the state governments are not interested in the funding of the university, as the government audaciously compares the institution to private universities.” Apparently empathising with them, Governor Ajimobi suspended the meeting he was attending to address the angry students. But, to his utter dismay, he got more than he bargained for. In fact, some unprintable comments of the students have gone viral. It was so tense that government had to post a more comprehensive version of the comments to reduce the embarrassment it caused. As the governor scolded them for being unruly, the students, on the other hand, like ‘bottled leopards’ replied with much venom. “The governor, who was offended by the comments of the students said, “some of you ought to have respect for constituted authority no matter what. If someone of my calibre should come here to address you, you have to respect that singular action. It is not a new thing for schools to be closed. You are singing that it will be tough, is it me that it will be tough for?” As he was talking, some of the students were making some abusive comments which prompted the governor to ask the security men to bring one of them to him. As the security agents moved towards him, his colleagues fenced him from them. The governor then used his maturity as he instructed the security agents to leave him so as to avoid escalation of the matter. The governor spoke further: “They told me students are out here and I suspended my meeting to be here. Do you want to hear me? When they call someone a student, he is always patient. If you guys come here and I heard that you are here and I came out to meet you, if you don’t want me to talk to you, you shouldn’t have come here. If you say you are students, part of the responsibilities of students is to have respect. Do you recognise me as governor. If you recognise me as governor and I heard that you are here and I stood up to listen to you. Is insult the next thing for you guys? If you want to listen, then listen. It is not by fighting and being unruly. Students of nowadays are engaging. Any time you are going somewhere, you go with a view to engaging the person. It is not for you to come here and be singing it will be tough. You should be orderly. You have no respect for the governor of a state. What kind of students are you? Quality of our education “You came here, we were holding a meeting. I came here to meet you and then you are insulting me. Even, if we fight, the next thing is how do we solve it. Is it by fighting? You owe me an apology. I am not angry. I only want to plead with you. I called the governor of Osun State and we spoke at length and agreed that we should help these students. “They have been away for eight months and we also agreed that we will bring minimum of N250m each. The vice chancellor agreed to be here and the ones who in their wisdom closed the institution. I am only begging you for engagement. Students of today are more engaging. We are looking for every opportunity to improve on the quality of our education and the system. They must open the school before the end of January”. Governor Ajimobi speaks on youth restiveness: The governor, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Communication and Strategy, Mr. Yomi Layinka, described restiveness of youths as a challenge that should be the concern of everybody and is an urgent problem that government at all levels should tackle. The youths should be productively engaged. We should engage them in both formal and informal levels. At informal level, as our own part, the government has put some agricultural programmes in place for young people to become people who can take care of food security. In formal level, education is being comprehensively looked into. Government is not unaware of those challenges that youths have. The challenges have deep social implications. Comprehensive plans are in pipeline for youth engagement. Police warn: The State Public Relations Officer, SP Adekunle Ajisebutu, said, “The Oyo State CP, Sam Adegbuyi warned them against violent protest, while advising that they should seek audience with governors of Oyo and Osun where possible and articulate their grievances in writing. “The meeting was part of proactive measures to forestall breakdown of law and order by the students or any group in any part of the state. Consequently, in order to avert crisis, the CP has placed all area commanders, DPOs and other field commanders on red alert as it is feared that the protest may be hijacked by hoodlums with ulterior motives. Meanwhile, adequate security has been provided to prevent breakdown of law and order that may arise as a result of the protest.” Youths stood up to Police over alleged ritualist: Just last week, some youths attacked policemen who tried to prevent them from executing jungle justice on a man who was allegedly caught with a human head at Olomi area of Ibadan metropolis. The incident led to the death of one man and arrest of 27 suspects. According to sources, after the man was caught with the head, he was beaten black and blue by the angry youths. The suspect was said to have dialed his phone trying to call a policeman to rescue him. The mob reportedly snatched the phone from him and checked the numbers he had on his phone. It was later discovered that he had numbers of four different Divisional Police Officers. The youths went wild when they discovered the phone numbers sensing that the suspect could be released because of his alleged closeness to the security agents. All efforts by the policemen deployed to the scene to make the youths see reason were rejected and this compelled the policemen to use tear gas cannisters to disperse them. This action of the police escalated the crisis as the youths allegedly attacked them with dangerous weapons. The policemen allegedly opened fire to scare them and in the process, a stray bullet hit one of them killing him immediately.
Source: Vanguard
No comments:
Post a Comment