UNIBEN Students Destroy& Set Ablaze Government Bus

Protests over the demolition of 16 official quarters of the employees of University of Benin by the Edo State Government continued on Wednesday with the destruction of a government-owned transit bus by persons suspected to be students of the university.

The protesters were said to have set the ‘Comrade Bus’ ablaze, which they then used to barricade the Benin- Lagos Expressway, leaving motorists stranded for several hours.

Our correspondent also gathered that another bus was vandalised by the protesters. It was, however, learnt that the protesters were dispersed by security personnel at the main entrance of the university.

The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Joseph Edoigiawerie, said although no arrest had been made, efforts were ongoing to apprehend those responsible for the action.

Edoigiawerie said, “Some lecturers and students of UNIBEN were protesting the demolition of the house of a former Vice Chancellor, Prof. Oshodin, and some other
lecturers by the state government.

“They blocked the Lagos exchange route and a Comrade Bus with registration number, ED 129 B28, was burnt and one bus with the inscription, ‘ECTS,’ was also
seized by the protesters.

“No arrest has been made but investigation is ongoing.” However, the UNIBEN chapter of the Academic Staff
Union of Universities has called on the state government to toe the path of the rule of law and allow court processes to be concluded before taking the law into its hand.

The chapter Chairman, Prof. Tony Monye-Emina, who made the statement, also told our correspondent on the telephone that ASUU was not aware of the violent
demonstration by suspected students of the university.

Meanwhile, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of the state, Mr. Henry Idahagbon, has vowed to resign his appointment and resort to farming if the
university management could prove that it had secured a stay of execution from the court prior to the
demolition.

According to a statement on Wednesday, the commissioner said none of the four respondents in the legal matter had been served any notice of the court order.

Idahagbon said, “I also want to state categorically that if the University of Benin and their counsel are able to
show proof of service of any application for stay of execution of judgment on any of the four respondents, I, Henry Idahagbon, will resign as Attorney-General of Edo State and go back to my village to farm.

“They may have filed, that I am not aware because after filing, they have to serve. It is the service of the court processes that invokes the jurisdiction of court.

“Until a party is served, the party is unknown before court and since the 16th of December when judgment was given, the case at the High Court effectively ended.”

OSOPADEC please pay our Bursary

Students from Oil Producing Areas of Ondo State recently held a peaceful protest on January 15th 2015 in Akure, the state capital, over non-payment of their bursary.
President of National Association of ilaje Students and a 300 level student of the University of Lagos, Comrade Victor Adeya, in a statement made available on December 16, 2014, during a meeting held at the Ondo State Area Command Office, the Chairman of the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC), Pastor Johnson Ogunyemi, promised to pay the students between December 25 and 29, 2014, but failed to keep the promise till date.

He said the commission owes bursary allowance for 2012/2013 academic session and 2013/2014 session, a deprivation that provoked students to embark on the peaceful protest.

According to him: " Following our submission with the Assistant Commissioner of Police that if our money is not paid before December 31 we would embark on a protest on January 8, 2015, we actually went for a protest to the commission. Though the police made relentless efforts to persuade us to abort our protest and demands but we resisted blatantly."

'We are, therefore, calling on our governor to urgently help us and substitute Ogunyemi. He had earlier stated that he doesn't have the courage to present the budget before the governor for approval, this shows that he is incompetent.'

Commenting on the allegations that the students displayed unruly behaviour to the police he said: ' We did not take weapons, we did not attack the police. The policemen that were injured were those ones that jumped out of their moving van to show their military competence, to prove to Ogunyemi that they deserved the money he paid them and to save him from humiliation.

We plead with the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC) to please look into these matter urgently.

Strike again, Oh no!

Last week, protests rock the environs of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti and call for the removal of the Rector of the institution Mrs. Theresa Akandeby the workers under the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnic (SSANIP) Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) The leaders of the above Unions Dr. Ayeni Oluwola (SSANIP), Tunji Owoeye (ASUP), Adekunle Adeniyi (NASU) and the National Secretary of SSANIP Mr Monday Jegede who addressed the protesting workers in turns at the entrance of the Federal Polytechnic alleged that: Management had also not been remitting "money deducted from workers' salary for staff co-operatives amounting up to #250 Million. Rather than being migrated to the next level, some of the wokers had been demoted and had their salaries out illegally. Non-payment of the CONTISS 15 approved by the Federal Government for Federal Polytechnics since October 2, 2013 On this they have declared an indefinite strike Mr. Adeyemi Adejola Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Polytechnic dismissed the allegations say they were " meant to tarnish the image of the Rector and members of the governing council. The ability of the institution to remit check off dues to cooperatives was due to shortfall in its Monthly allocation from the Federal Government He also said, the stoppage of the CONTISS 15 was a directive from the Federal Government, saying “as at this time, the Federal Government is saying that any rector that has paid CONTISS 15 should refund it while whoever has not paid to stop. So it is a directive from the government.” Adejolu added: “ The monthly salary of the polytechnic is over N230m while the government is releasing just N178m.” He said rather than go to the bank to borrow, the management parley with the leaders of the cooperatives that the check off dues would be delayed. “I don’t know the exact amount the cooperative is being owed but I am sure it is not up to N250m the workers alleged.” While exonerating the polytechnic from blame, the spokesman said the federal government was aware of the situation which he said was national in all federal polytechnics. He dismissed the call for the removal of the rector from office and dissolution of the governing council saying it was ill motivated and “ giving the dog a bad name in order to hang it.” Photos/ Sources: www.fedpolyado.org www.liveschoolnews.com.ng