Students’ unrest serious setback —FCE Oyo provost

ONGOING admission screening process for the 2017/18 academic session at the Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo, will have to be set aside for awhile to allow the school management to embark on intensive renovation of facilities destroyed recently by protesting students of the institution.

Angry students of the college last week Monday destroyed facilities estimated at millions of naira while protesting the sudden death of a 100 Level student from the Department of Social Studies, Miss Suliyat Sanimu.
Addressing reporters on the incident, the provost of the college, Professor Kamorudeen Usman, described the protest as uncalled for.

Miss Sanimu was said to have died in her parents’ family hospital in Ibadan where she was receiving treatment as a sickle cell patient. But the news of her death sparked spontaneous protest on the campus as students, who believed she died in the college’s medical centre, went on the rampage, destroying school property and setting other facilities on fire.

Professor Usman said: “My understanding of the whole scenario was that the girl left the college to her parents’ home in Ibadan on Thursday, September 14, 2017 and died on Sunday, 17 September, 2017.
“The news of her death was heard on campus on Monday 18, 2017. That was when the students took to the streets to protest her death. I quickly went to them to address them to douse their anger and also sympathize with them.
“I even called the mother of the deceased to explain to them the whole story, but they turned their deaf ears. It was (through) God’s intervention that we did not lose lives to the mayhem; but college buildings and other property were terribly vandalized. As a matter of fact, the College Health Centre was destroyed completely.”
The college has since been shut down.

The provost told newsmen that the college would not be able to resume until all the facilities destroyed are replaced.
Professor Usman said the college management had constituted a panel to estimate the extent of the damage, but he surmised that the Health Centre alone would cost millions of naira to fix.

The chairman of the governing council of the institution, Alhaji Abubakbar Galadima, who came to visit the institution, also decried the students’ reaction over the issue, describing it as ungodly.
He said the college had always been known as the most peaceful federal institution among its peers. He then called on all stakeholders to maintain peace and assured the staff of improved welfare package.