• Prevent candidates from writing UTME
From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Aggrieved students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State protested and, in the process, prevented 250 candidates from writing the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Daily Sun gathered that the students staged the protest to register their anger against the two owner states – Oyo and Osun, over inability to fund the institution, which has paralysed academic activities on the campus since June 2016.
The students contended that their fate had not been resolved in the past 11 months, hence, another set of students should not be admitted.
The protesting students locked the main gate of the institution and prevented university staff from entering the campus. They insisted that the gates would remain shut until a resolution was reached between aggrieved lecturers and management. They insisted that lecturers would resume in the next 48 hours.
But, the police were at the school gate to ensure the protest did not turn violent. The students sang solidarity songs and carried placards with inscriptions, and demanded a stable academic calendar.
They appealed to Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi and his Osun State counterpart, Rauf Aregbesola, who are visitors to the institution, to safeguard their future, by releasing funds to the institution so that academic activities could resume.
Some staff unions in the institution are currently on strike, lecturers under the umbrella of the Academic Staff Union of Universities are on ‘no pay no work policy,’ following inability of the owner states to fulfil promise, before the last industrial action was suspended.
Chairman of LAUTECH Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr. Abiodun Olaniran, and his counterpart from the Senior Staff Association of Universities (SSANU), Mr. Alesinloye Muraina, in separate telephone interviews, confirmed the students prevented their members, including top management staff of the institution, from entering the university.
Vice Chancellor, Prof. Gbadegesin, reportedly addressed the protesting students with a view to allowing the UTME candidates to write the examination yesterday, but his plea was accepted by the students.
Daily Sun further gathered that when the Soun of Ogbomoso, Oba Jimoh Oyewumi, Ajagungbade III, heard about the development, he sent three chiefs to LAUTECH to address the angry students. But, the students reportedly ignored their plea.
Meanwhile, the South-West Zonal Coordinator of Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Mrs. Bola Elushade, has assured the affected candidates that they should not be afraid as the board will reschedule their examinations.
In an interview with journalists at the zonal office of JAMB at Ikolaba, Ibadan, yesterday, she said within two days, the candidates would receive messages from JAMB, which would furnish them with relevant information on the dates and venues for the examinations that would be rescheduled.
According to Elushade, it has become imperative for JAMB to reschedule the UTME for the affected candidates to another centre because LAUTECH management has said it could not guarantee the safety of the candidates with what the students did.
She noted that the candidates allocated to LAUTECH live in Ogbomoso axis and JAMB would consider rescheduling them to write the exams in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, because Ilorin is closer to Ogbomoso than Ibadan, adding that the state of road from Ogbomoso to Ilorin is more favourable.
Her words: “The candidates will be rescheduled for another session. So, the affected candidates should wait to get text messages cum mails informing them when next they will write their examination.
“Probably from today, tomorrow, they will begin to get messages to reprint their slips to know when and where they have been rescheduled. LAUTECH has said they cannot guarantee the safety of the candidates. So, we have to move them out.
“The parents should be calm. Their children or wards will not miss the examination. They will write the examination on another day. Everyone supposed to write examination in LAUTECH between today (Monday) and Thursday will be rescheduled to another centre.”
