Crisis looms at Oyo varsity over appt of principal officers – Ogbomoso grp protests
Yinka ADETUNJI
An indigenous group, Ogbomoso Academic Forum (OAF), has protested against the alleged plan to scheme out qualified persons from Ogbomoso and other towns in the ongoing process to appoint new principal officers for the Emmanuel Alayande University of Education, Oyo.
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According to a statement by the group signed by its spokeman, Olatunbosun Ayandele, and made available to newsmen Friday, the plot is hatched by the chairman of the governing council of the institution Professor Ayo Ogunkunle revealing the plot had been perfected to exclude Ogbomoso indigenes and others from being appointed to hold positions in any of the five principal offices.
The group lamented this contravenes the directive of the state governor Engr Seyi Makinde to ensure equity and fairness in the distribution of the positions to cover the five geopolitical zones in the state i.e. Ibadan, Ogbomoso, Oyo, Oke-Ogun and Ibarapa.
The group therefore appealed to Governor Seyi Makinde to call Professor Ogunkunle to order describing the alleged move as marginalization of the
other zones.
It slammed the council chairman saying he is pandering to an evil agenda by some Ibadan elements.
“We had uncovered the Council Chairman’s scheme to carry out the wishes of Ibadan Zone in defiance of the Governor’s unwavering directives that all five Zones of Oyo State should have adequate representation in the institution’s administration structure,” OAF stated.
Emphasizing that it would be evil for the council chairman to scheme out other zones from the institution’s principal offices, they passionately appealed to Governor Makinde to curtail the Ayoade Ogunkunle-led governing council in its marginalization plot.
They regretted that contrary to the governor’s directive, “to our dismay, the Council Chairman is only doing what the Ibadan people wanted, allowing them to hold the majority of the principal offices.”
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Continuing, the group stated, “Ibadan Zone had already taken up two seats in the Management when the Council appointed one Ibadan man as Deputy Vice Chancellor and another Ibadan man as Director of Academic Planning following the appointment of a Vice Chancellor who is from the Ibarapa zone.”
“The Chairman of the Council had also concluded plan to appoint an Ibadan man to the role of Bursar, which is a positions that should ordinarily only be granted to one of the three remaining Zones—Oyo, Ogbomoso, and Oke-Ogun.
“We have it on account that when the advertisement was out to occupy the three remaining principal offices, and they were shortlisted for an interview last Wednesday for the positions of Registrar and Bursar having been discovered that no applicants among those applied for Librarian was qualified hence the need to re-advertise the position of Librarian. On Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th March 2024, interview was conducted for the positions of Bursar and Registrar respectively. However, an Ibadan man was listed as having scored the highest mark, which was a product of manipulation for the position of Bursar, deliberately placing Ogbomoso man in the second place.”
It was further noted that “the main goal of the manipulation was to also fix another Ibadan man as the institution’s Bursar, adding that the worst of it all was the selection of an Osogbo woman who is married to a non Oyo native as the institution’s Registrar, thus denying the position to a direct Oyo town native who was also said to have been placed second. Interestingly the Ibadan man that has been penciled down for the position of Bursar completed his term as Bursar for the Polytechnic Ibadan just last week.”
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Calling on Ogbomoso indigenes to rise up against the “injustice and sabotage,” the group asserted that “Oyo indigenes have also been raising their voices against the injustice done to them by the Governing Council under the guise of Government directives.
“It is regrettably lugubrious that the same Ibadan man who the Governing Council manipulatively selected for the Bursar’s position just completed his five years as Bursar at the Polytechnic Ibadan last week, on March 23, 2024. He has even been dragged to the ICPC over alleged non-release of N20m TETFUND Scholarship fund meant for one of the institution’s Lecturer, in the Department of Quantity Surveying, Dr Babatunde Dosumu.
“Is it right for someone who already completed his five years as Bursar in the Ibadan Polytechnic to be entrusted again for another five years in the newly established institution, when in reality should be conceded to Ogbomoso for fairness and equity? Is it normal for someone who is already under ICPC for fraud related offense in an institution own by the State Government to be taken in by another institution belonging to the same Government if the Governing Council had done a thorough background check on the integrity of the person.
“Does this imply that there are no more qualified candidates in Oyo State? We believe that before things go out of control, the Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology, and ultimately the Governor, will take swift action. Delay could be dangerous.”
