Yinka ADETUNJI
Wonder shall never end. Can this be true? Allegation has been made that students who sat in a lecture room at the Iseyin campus of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Monday, to receive lecture from a Professor of Crop Science, Abiodun Olaniran, are “fake students.”
Early Monday, Fresh FM Ibadan broadcast a live phone interview with the said Professor Olaniran, who is the immediate past chairman of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), LAUTECH branch, in which he gleefully stated he had taken the 200 level students directed to resume for second semester at the campus that morning, though he failed to reveal the number of students.
Also, “one of the students” who however did not give his name was interviewed by the station and he also confirmed they had received lecture that morning. But told to give the phone to another student so the interviewer could speak with him or her too he spluttered, “No student is close by.”
Meanwhile, as the purported lecture was ongoing investigations revealed majority of the 1, 533 students directed to proceed to Iseyin were in Ogbomoso and about 100 others were at Ibadan to confer with a government team, the state legislators and the Director of the Department of State Security (DSS), to plead they are retained in Ogbomoso. The students also took time to visit the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Ibadan Network Centre to state their cause.
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So, what is happening? Did the students complied with the order! But an independent investigation by ogbomosoinsightonline.com turned out to be a shocking revelation.
Some staff at the Iseyin campus who spoke on condition of anonymity disclosed it was all “a scam, a concocted packaging.”
“I can tell you 100 percent that the so-called students were picked from the streets or garages to grace the classroom to give an impression that students had resumed at the Iseyin campus. I can tell you with certainty that those in the classroom were not more than seven arranged persons. And they gave each person N2, 000,” a staffer informed.
“Those behind the charade knew the students were planning to protest at Ibadan on Monday and so, bringing in fake students must have been their stratagem to take the sail out of the protest. They must have wanted to impress the governor, and cover the wrong briefing they were giving the governor that everything was under control. Tell them to post the video or photograph of the students whom they said were sitting in the classroom. It is a scam.”
Another worker at the complex said, “Please, why the desperation? Doesn’t this validate the allegation that those behind the relocation had ulterior motives? Why should such thing generate controversies if it is a popular decision? Why would young children, many who are teenagers, defy them and refuse to heed their directive? These are not leaders but dealers, apology to late Chief Moshood Abiola.”
Meanwhile, efforts to reach the designated Provost, Professor Jacob Gbemiga Adewale, proved abortive as calls made to his mobile number did not connect.
Recall the matter of the establishment of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Renewable Natural Resources, a satellite campus of LAUTECH at Iseyin, has been generating controversies. 200 level students of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences were ordered to resume at the new campus but this is being stoutly resisted by the students who claimed they would be shortchanged.
