Students awaiting results barricade college

It was an uneasy calm today 14 February at the premises of the College of Education, Ilorin as hundreds of students of the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti sealed off the premises of the institution.

The college of education is an affiliate of the University of Ado Ekiti, running sandwich and regular degree programmes.

The students, who claimed to be 2012 graduates of the institution, said they had not been issued their results, which will qualify them for mobilisation for the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, programme.

A detachment of regular and mobile policemen mounted surveillance on the roads leading to the campus to forestall breakdown of law and order.

The rampaging students disrupted the ongoing first Semester examination of the NCE students of the college,barricading all entrances to the campus.

The irate youth, who carried placards with unprintable words denouncing the administration of the suspended Provost of the institution, Dr. Ibrahim Abdulrahaman, made bonfires in the front gate of the institution.

Pioneer President of the regular students of the university, Ilorin outreach, Muritala I. Suleiman, accused the suspended provost of being the architect of their woes, arguing that he allegedly defaulted in regularly remitting money due to the parent university in Ado Ekiti.

Suleiman said the over 500 graduates called on the college authorities to iron out their differences with the Ekiti state university, otherwise they would make the school ungovernable.

He said: “Results ought to have been out three months after exams and we finished exams July last year. The bone of contention is that school management lied that it is not indebted to Ekiti state University, Ado Ekiti. But we eventually discovered that the College is indebted to Ado Ekiti to the tune of N138, 160,200 while they just posted N15m.

“Then Ado told management to defray all its indebtedness before our results would be released. Students did not default in the payment of their fees which was N80,000 each for the Regular undergraduates.

“We want the college to sort itself out with the University of Ado Ekiti between now (Thursday) and tomorrow (Friday) so that our results will be released and we will then be mobilized for the mandatory NYSC. Anything short of that will incur the wrath of students. Today’s demonstration is peaceful but subsequent ones might not be.”

He appealed to the state government to intervene before things get out of hand, adding that the students had held series of meetings with the state government on the matter.