Don’t sabotage our zone, Ogbomoso group drags Emmanuel Alayande Varsity Governing Council, appeals to Gov. Makinde

*Don’t sabotage our zone, Ogbomoso group drags Emmanuel Alayande Varsity Governing Council, appeals to Gov. Makinde*

An indigenous group under the aegis of Ogbomoso Academic Forum (OAF), has cried out to Governor Seyi Makinde as a matter of urgency to call the Chairman of the Governing Council, Professor Ayo Ogunkunle, of the newly established Emmanuel Alayande University of Education, Oyo, to order over his plot to purposefully scheme out and sabotage the Ogbomoso Zone from appointment into the five principal offices of the institution.

The group, in a statement signed by its spokesman, Olatubosun Ayandele, and made available to newsmen in Ibadan on Friday, said that it has 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.

Emphasizing that it would be evil for the Council Chairman to scheme out other Zones from the institution’s principal offices for his personal acrimony and benefits. Mr Ayandele appeal to the Executive Governor to reject the evil scheme of the Ayoade Ogunkunle-led Governing Council.

Ayandele noted that the Governor had urged the Council to make sure that the Management team include representatives from each of the State’s five political Zones—(Ibadan, Ogbomoso, Oyo, Ibarapa, and Oke-Ogun) but to his dismay, the Council Chairman was only doing what the Ibadan people wanted, allowing them to hold the majority of the principal offices.

He clarified that 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 group expressed alarm that the Chairman of the Council had also concluded plan to appoint an Ibadan man to the role of Bursar, which is a position that should ordinarily only be granted to one of the three remaining Zones—Oyo, Ogbomoso, and Oke-Ogun.

According to Ayandele, 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.

He 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.

Calling on Ogbomoso indigenes to swiftly rise up against the injustice and sabotage by the Council Chairman, 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 alleged 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 not more qualified candidate 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.”, the statement said.