LP accusses opposition of incitement in varsity, poly

Labour Party on Sunday alleged that the opposition parties in Ondo State had been planning to incite workers of the state-owned higher institutions against the Olusegun Mimiko administration. A statement by the Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Femi Okunjemiruwa, alleged that workers of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, and those of the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, were the targets of the opposition. He said, “It is disheartening to know that opposition political parties in Ondo State have taken their morbid agenda to ‘capture’ Ondo State people and bring them into second slavery to the campuses of the higher institutions in the state.” He also alleged that “there were reports of frenzied activities directed at disrupting academic activities in these institutions in an effort to create the impression that the Labour Party government, through the management of these institutions, was not doing enough for them”. The statement added, “These blatant lies that have no basis in fact had been told of how workers at the institutions were not paid and how students’ bursary were being owed. “The latest in this game of fallacies is the two-day protest by some staff of Adekunle Ajasin University for some non-descript claims which provided the cloak for the selfish agenda of some misguided politicians who cannot understand why universities should be spared the type of instability spurned by their brand of politics. “The Labour Party notes that not only are salaries paid when due in these institutions, but that tuition fees in higher institutions in the other South-West states are several notches higher than that paid at Adekunle Ajasin University and other institutions in the state. “Whereas students of Adekunle Ajasin University, for instance, pay tuition fee at less than N25, 000.00 per annum, their counterparts in the South-West region pay between N150,000.00 and N400,000.00. “We wonder what these opposition parties have to offer to higher education in Ondo State other than to charge high school fees and totally abolish some of these schools as they have been done in other South-West states which they control.”