Trouble in Ikole-Ekiti over alleged plan to relocate federal varsity

Trouble returned to Ekiti State in the early hours of Thursday when irate protesters stormed the streets of Ikole-Ekiti in Ikole Local Government Area of the state over alleged plan by the state government to move a federal university allocated to the state and earlier slated for the community to Oye-Ekiti in Oye Local Government Area of the state.

But the state government has accused leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state of being behind the spreading of the “falsehood” that precipitated the protest.

Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Ganiyu Owolabi, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune on telephone over the matter, said the government had not made any such pronouncement, adding that some PDP leaders from the state, operating from Abuja, spread a rumour that the university would be sited in Oye and not Ikole where the state governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, in his power over the Land Use Act, had promised to site the university.

The protesters, made bonfires in strategic places in the town and displayed placards of various inscriptions, condemned the alleged plan to move the proposed university.

The Ekiti State government, however, assured the people of the state that the decision to site the university in Ikole-Ekiti remained unchanged despite the subversive activities of “a few cabal.”

According to a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the governor on media, Alhaji Mojeed Jamiu, following deep consultations with relevant stakeholders, including officials of the Federal Government, state government, traditional rulers and community leaders, Governor Fayemi chose Ikole-Ekiti as site of the new university.

He said, “before the decision to site the university in Ikole was made public, the governor had also consulted with President Goodluck Jonathan, the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission (NUC).”

“The decision to site the university in Ikole-Ekiti was informed by the need to avoid unnecessary acrimony among communities at a time we are still grappling with self-inflicted crisis, borne out of indiscriminate and self-serving siting of tertiary institutions in the state.