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.