Another Crisis Looms At Adeyemi College, Ondo...Over Expulsion of 300 Students

By Our Reporters

THE PALPABLE tension that has pervaded Adeyemi college of Education, Ondo since the recent students’ crisis may not abate soon, as the college management has expelled no fewer than 300 students that were linked to the riot.

The latest action of the college management was contained in newspaper advertisements, which it sponsored, on the pretext that the affected students have performed poorly in their academics at their various departments.

Prof.Ruqquayat Ahmed-Rufai (Minister of Education)

 

Some of the affected students who spoke with PLATFORM NEWSWIRE recently however said, contrary to the allegation of poor academic performances, they (students) were expelled from the institution on mere suspicion of their involvement in the recent violent protest that led to the closure of the college.

The students, who prefer to remain anonymous, stated that the Provost of the college, Professor Adeyemi Idowu should be removed by the federal government for failing in his responsibility to provide good leadership since he assumed office.

They said the Provost has the penchant for being too bureaucratic on matters relating to students’ welfare, even as they said he does not even bother to know the problems they are facing in their various halls of residence and departments.

Some of the affected students said they only see Professor Adeyemi Idowu whenever he is inside his official car, and that, unlike some former provosts of the college who usually pay regular visits to where students are domiciled, Idowu always display arrogance and prefer to stay put in his office and await information about student matters from third parties, as well as his cronies.

“Why must Professor Idowu see himself as a tin god when he is just a college provost? What will happen if the college becomes a University and he Idowu becomes the Vice Chancellor? He is a total failure as far as human relation is concerned,” one of the aggrieved students said angrily.

It would be recalled that Adeyemi College was engulfed in a violent crisis that led to its closure on 14 May, this year, after students accused the management of nonchalant attitude in regard to their welfare, especially, on health matters.

In a related development, parents of majority of the expelled students of the college are getting set to drag the college management to court for allegedly witch-hunting their children over the recent crisis that engulfed the college.

Some of the parents who spoke with the paper said they have hired a team of lawyers; to be led by a popular Lagos based Senior Advocate of Nigeria. The parents, apart from seeking for an order to make the college management reverse itself on the expulsion of the affected students, would also be seeking for billions of naira as compensation for the embarrassment caused the  students and their parents by the college management.

Efforts by our reporter to speak with the Provost proved abortive as he was said to have travelled out of town, but an impeccable source at his office told this paper that the college management did not witch-hunt any student in the recent expulsion exercise, adding that the affected students indeed had poor academic records that warranted their being shown the way out.

At the time of filing this report, there were indications that the Adeyemi college management is compiling the list of the next batch of students to be expelled from the college, in continuation of its desire to purge the institution of perceived bad eggs.