Poly lecturers go spiritual over alleged plans to sack 250 members

Members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP), Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta chapter on Wednesday resulted into traditional means to upturn the alleged directive by the technical committee setup by the Ogun State government to upgrade the institution to a university status asking them to resign and reapply as academic staff members of the new University.

The polytechnic was upgraded to a University status recently and named Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology (MAUSTECH) by the National Universities Commission (NUC).The lecturers as early as 7.am stormed the institution’s gate and blocked it. They were chanting different anti-Committee songs. They also brought some fetish materials inside a calabash like a sacrifice to scare visitors away.

The placards carrying lecturers also rain curses on the committee, saying the committee wanted to deprive them from what they had laboured for.

Some of the placard inscriptions read: “Okebukola must go” and “MAUSTECH must stay.”

The ASUP Chairman, Comrade Kola Abiola, who led the protest at the gate of the school, accused the chairman of the Technical Committee, Professor Peter Okebukola, of giving the directive during a meeting between members of the committee and the leadership of the union.

He said the union doesn’t have confidence in Okebukola and its team. The union however sought for a round-table discussion with the committee and vowed to resist any directive that could lead to the loss of jobs by the academic staff members.

Also speaking, the zonal coordinator of ASUP, Zone C in charge of South West, Olawale Adetunji Omobaorun said the action of the lecturers has the backing and the blessing of the National body.

He argued that the government and the committee does not recognised the right and interest of the major stakeholders in their decision, stressing “they are not ready to listen to the plight of the stakeholders that has built the institution

Omobaorun said “committee and government have refuse to give recognition to the plight of major stakeholders and our interest is not their interest. We say no to slave trading in the land of the black”. The State President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Comrade Balogun Olawale described the allege directive as wrong, saying the government should be considerate.

Olawale said the action has resulted in the grounded of academic activities, saying they will not support anything that would prolong academic calendar of the institution.

He urged the state government to intervene in the matter before it get out of hands.

Meanwhile, Okebukola refuted claims that the technical committee on the newly established MAUSTECH has ordered the sack of over 250 academic staff members of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic.

Okebukola in a statement signed by him yesterday argued that the position of the committee has been re-echoed in series of meetings held with staff union.

“We held a meeting with all staff at the beginning of our assignment and conveyed our position on job security. This position has been reechoed in subsequent meetings with staff unions. It is curious that some persons have taken undue liberty of misinforming the general public with the spread of such fake news”

“We have given the good people of Ogun State a pledge that in the shortest possible time, MAUSTECH and Ogun State Polytechnic, Ipokia will be among the brightest stars in the firmament of quality higher education in Nigeria, indeed in Africa,” he concluded.