Students Besiege OSOPADEC Office In Ondo Over Unpaid Bursaries
Thousands of students from the oil producing communities in Ondo State on Tuesday besieged the office of the State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (OSOPADEC) on Oba ile road, Akure, the Ondo State capital, to protest the non-payment of their three years bursary stipend. The aggrieved students, armed with placards bearing different anti-government inscriptions, chanted solidarity songs and called top management staff of the commission unprintable names while they shut the gate leading to the entrance of the commission and disallowed entry into the compound.
The compound and facility accommodates both workers of the Commission and that of the Africa Independent Television (AIT) owners of the Ray power FM, thereby paralysing broadcasting operation and activities. The Daily Times gathered that many of the workers upon sighting the protesting students took to their heels while others sought refuge in hamlets and stores at nearby outskirts. It was observed that even the timely intervention of security agencies including the police, led by the Area Commander in Akure, Nkem Okoli, could not calm the aggrieved students as they refused to sheathe their sword.
Some of the protesting students affirmed that a total of seven thousand four hundred and forty students who applied for the scholarship/bursary fund, and had undergone the necessary screening exercise but have not been paid their allowances. While speaking on behalf of his protesting colleagues, President of the National Association of Ilaje Students (NAIS), Comrade Abayomi Joseph, told journalists that the commission had deprived the students their lawful entitlement by owing them bursary allowance for the 2013/2014, and 2014/2015 academic sessions respectively.
Joseph, a 300 Level student of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile Ife in Osun State, who observed that such action provoked the students to embark on a peaceful protest, said their N40, 000 naira yearly allowance has not been forthcoming since 2013 academic session. He maintained that the the commission under Pastor Johnson Ogunyemi had repeatedly promised to pay the students their accumulated outstanding busary allowance but failed to keep to his words till date. “We (students) have written series of proposals regarding this issue. Every necessary processes have been put in place but is quite appalling that the commission is delaying in the payment of this money
