From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
Academic activities were paralysed, yesterday, when lecturers at the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, (MAPOLY), Abeokuta, shut the entrance gate of the institution, to protest a directive from former executive secretary of the National Universities Committee (NUC) and transition committee of the polytechnic into Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology (MAUSTECH), Prof. Peter Okebukola, that they should resign their appointments and reapply.
Okebukola reportedly to have issued a directive to over 250 existing academic staff of the polytechnic to resign and reapply to the management of the proposed university.
The lecturers, who equally alleged that Okebukola, at a meeting with the MAPOLY ASUP executive members, had referred to the polytechnic lecturers as ‘road side teachers,’ unfit to teach at MAUSTECH, pronounced him persona non grata and dared him to step into the institution.
Meanwhile, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), MAPOLY branch, after a congress on Tuesday, declared it would resist any move not to consider them in the arrangement for the university.
Okebukola, however, denied the allegation same day and explained the committee has not issued any document or instruction to anybody on the issues being raised by the union.
But, the lecturers converged on the school, yesterday, as early 7:00a.m, set up bonfires on the road leading to the school gate.
They also carried placards with various inscriptions and alleged the committee wanted to deprive them from what they had laboured for.
Scores of students and other staff of the institution were seen stranded, while vehicles were turned back by the protesting lecturers.
Speaking with Daily Sun, Chairman, ASUP, MAPOLY chapter, Mr. Kola Abiola, said the protest became necessary, in order to register the union’s grievances with the Okebukola-led transition committee.
He also passed vote of no confidence in Okebukola-led technical team.
Abiola vowed that the school would remain shut until a roundtable discussion is held between the union and the technical committee, to ascertain the future of over 250 lecturers of the school.
Also speaking, Zonal Coordinator of ASUP in charge of South-West, Olawale Adetunji, said the action of the lecturers had the backing of the national body of the union.
According to him, the protest became inevitable since the technical committee and government were not ready to listen to the plight of the stakeholders that had built the institution over the years.
“The committee and government have refused to recognise plight of major stakeholders and our interest is not their interest. We say no to slave trading in the land of the black,” he said.