The authorities of the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti have announced the closure of the university for two weeks.
The closure, which was announced in a statement issued by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Oladipo Aina, was made available to journalists on Friday by the Public Relations Officer of EKSU, Mr. Olubunmi Ajibade.
The closure was necessitated by the continued protest of the students over the no-fee-no-lecture policy, which was recently introduced by the management of the institution.
The protest, which started on Thursday, continued on Friday thereby forcing the authorities to announce the closure.
The statement read in part, “Those who refuse to complete payment before the resumption date will not be allowed to enter the campus or attend lectures. The condition for resumption and re-absorption of students include evidence of full payment of all outstanding school fees and evidence of registration for the current session.”
Also, a statement by the Head of Transition Committee of EKSU on behalf of the students, Adeoye Aribasoye, said that the representatives of the students had met with Governor Kayode Fayemi and the vice-chancellor and a compromise had been reached.
However, the closure of the university and the stance of the vice-chancellor contradicted the agreement Aribasoye said was reached with the governor and Aina.
Earlier on Friday, the students chanted anti-government songs and prevented varsity officials and visitors from gaining entry into the campus.
They searched buses plying the Ado Iworoko Road and forced out fellow students to join in the protest.
But the VC had insisted that the policy would not change until the students paid their tuition fees.
He explained that 1,227 students had paid out of about 14,000 students, saying the university needed money to keep it running.
Students of Ekiti State University Ado Ekiti on Thursday protested against the new policy of no-fee-no-lecture introduced by the university’s management.
Enraged by the policy, some of the students staged a protest outside the gate of the university, preventing varsity officials and visitors from entering the university.
The students, who were chanting anti-government songs, said although Governor Kayode Fayemi announced that fees in the varsity and other state-owned institutions be pegged at N50,000.00, EKSU management made sure that students paid nothing less than N85,000, with some paying as high as N150,000.00.
The protest temporarily forced motorists to stop at a distance from the university gate, until the students later made way for them to pass.
No fewer than 10 patrol vans, loaded with armed policemen and men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, were stationed at the main gate to prevent any act of vandalism.
Some of the students told journalists that the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Oladipo Aina, and some other senior officials of the institution were smuggled out of the campus when the protest was gathering momentum.
A student, who identified himself as Ifeoluwa, spoke on behalf of the protesting students. He asked the school management to rescind the decision and allow students to pay their tuition fees in installments.
The protesting students also frowned on the introduction of uniform for students by the Faculty of Education, saying this would make the university look like an advanced secondary school.
But the vice chancellor insisted that the no-fee-no-lecture would not change until all the students pay their fees.
He said, “EKSU charges the least tuition fee, especially among state universities. Very few students have paid. We can no longer continue to run the university that way. If we wait till the examination period, they would plead through politicians, monarchs and clerics, and after allowing them to write exams, they would not pay.”
From: National Mirror Published on: Friday, May 03, 2013
ABIODUN NEJO
Family and friends of 38-year-old Ayo Jeje, who was killed on March 30, at Erijiyan Ekiti by individuals believed to be members of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, have renewed their calls for justice in the case.
Wife of the deceased, Ronke, and his four children as well as other friends and family members, who were clad in black, charged the government and other relevant agencies to expedite action on the matter to ensure justice.
A family member and cleric, Pastor Michael Oladunjoye, who described Jeje’s death as ‘a painful thing,’ said since it was a murder case, since his death was not natural, it is normal that we demand justice in the matter. Justice has to be done.”
Jeje, a former ACN member, who was billed to publicly defect, alongside other 2, 000 youths to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on March 31, was killed on the eve of the defection in an attack on PDP members and youths billed to defect to the opposition party.
Oladunjoye, however, charged politicians to eschew politics of violence and consider the accompanying pains for victims of such violence, advising them to ‘desist from killing others for their personal benefit.’
This was as former Ekiti State governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, accused the state government of culpability in the murder. Fayose, in a statement from his campaign outfit, Ayo Fayose Campaign Organisation, AFCO, challenged the state ACN Chairman, Chief Jide Awe, an indigene of Erijiyan, to explain the killing of Jeje on the fateful night.
The statement by AFCO Director of Publicity and Research, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, described the ACN government in the state as a ‘deceit, disaster, failure and ill-fortune for the people of Ekiti State,’ especially in view of the new wave of violence its members were visiting on the people.
Fayose was reacting to a statement credited to Awe, describing the former governor as one having no respect for the rule of law and causing violence in the state.
The statement, which catalogued the series of violence perpetrated under the ACN government, listed the killing of Jeje and the shooting of 76-year-old Mrs. Julianah Adewumi, at Erijiyan; the killing of three PDP members at Omuo and others.
From: National Mirror Published on: Friday, May 03, 2013
ABIODUN NEJO
Students of Ekiti State University, EKSU, Ado- Ekiti yesterday staged a peaceful protest at the gate of their campus over the insistence by the institution’s authorities that they should pay school fees before attending classes.
The students, who gathered as early as 5.30am, chanted war songs against Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi and the institution’s management.
The protesters also made bonfire outside the locked gates of the institution. While some students said they locked the gate to prevent anybody, including management and staff of the institution, from gaining access to the institution, others claimed the gates were locked by the university authorities to prevent the protesting students from entering the campus.
Over 10 police Hilux vans conveying armed policemen and men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, were stationed at the gate to prevent any act of vandalism.
Some students, who spoke with journalists, accused the university of insincerity over the “no fees, no lecture” policy as students in some departments were being made to pay as high as N150,000 through various charges as against the N50,000 school fees that was announced.
The students, who said the university authorities should allow them to attend classes while they pay the school fees later, said they would gather daily at the institution’s gate to continue the protest until the policy was reversed.
But the Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Patrick Aina, who said the university had not been closed down, said the students’ action was unnecessary and unexpected as payment of school fees at resumption had come to stay as the standard at the institution.
Aina, who said the students were not ready to pay school fees, said the university would no longer tolerate that as the grace period given to the students to pay up had expired.
The vice-chancellor disclosed that only 1,127 students had paid their tuition fees among the 14,500 fulltime students despite extending the two-week payment period to about five weeks.
He said: “Payment of fees is a condition of studentship; that is the standard now in the university.”
Aina disclosed that students were owing school fees to the tune of over N2 billion as at last year. He said: “We will not encourage that situation to continue.”
From: National Mirror Published on: Friday, May 03, 2013
States in the South-West are planning a western rail line, which will begin from Lagos State and terminate in Osogbo, the Osun State capital. Osun State Commissioner for Special Duties and Regional Integration, Mr. Bashir Ajibola, disclosed this yesterday while answering questions during the ministerial press conference organized by the state Ministry of Information and Strategy. Ajibola said efforts had been intensified by the South-West states to make the rail project a reality.
According to him, the proposed rail line tagged: “Great Western Rail Line,” is the first phase of the project being planned under the current regional integration agenda by the state governments.
He said: “The project, if completed, will further boost the growth and development of the region and will also create employment and commercial activities in the zone.
“Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, would soon be signed on the arrangement of Public Private Partnership, PPP, on it and we believe that the project would enable the people especially the businessmen and women in the region to transact business in any place without any hitch.”
The commissioner, who refused to disclose the cost of the project, said if there was effective collaboration of private sector in the project, remarkable achievements would be recorded in the region. Speaking on the Osun Citizens’ Mediation Centre project, Ajibola said the centre was established to provide free legal services to the residents of the state.
He disclosed that his ministry had processed Fire Service Bill 2013, National Primary Health Care Development Agency Bill, The Magistrates’ Court Bill, Special Offences Court Law Bill among others, adding that 84 complaints had so far been received by the centre within the first month of its establishment.
From: Nigerian Tribune Published on: Thursday, May 02, 2013
Written by Olatunji Oladejo
The painful loss of the deputy governor of Ekiti State, late Mrs. Olufunmilayo Olayinka, to cancer has again brought to the fore the deadliness of cancer. It is a sad reminder of the fact that the scourge is no respecter of person. Our war against cancer must, therefore, be total any time, any day.
Recently, council members of the African Organization for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) and other stakeholders converged on the Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel, Lagos, Nigeria, where issues relating to cancer control in Africa were discussed and new strategies to fight the malignant scourge charted.
Professor Isaac Folorunso Adewole, FAS, Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, who was inaugurated as President of the organization for a two-year tenure at its eighth international conference in Cairo, Egypt, presided over the council meeting in Lagos.
The Lagos meeting of council was the first one to be held in Nigeria. It was part of the body’s activities in preparation for its ninth international conference in Durban, South Africa, later this year.
The executive council of AORTIC consists of scientists and clinicians with a professional interest in prevention, treatment and study of cancer - volunteering their expertise for the plight of cancer patients.
Setting the tone for the meeting, Professor Adewole said, “We need to address the trajectory of cancer in Africa. We want to change the misfortune of cancer in Africa. We want to ensure that people with cancer report early and have accurate and prompt diagnoses. We want to ensure that Africans with cancers come for treatment and all the infrastructure should be put in place. Also, we want to ensure that we put in place methods to prevent cancer.”
He said the organization would partner with the African Union (AU) to eradicate cancer, explaining that as a research organization “we are working with cancer organizations all over the world. We have a committee which educates and creates awareness. We have been talking with the African Union and they have asked us to submit a blueprint for the African leaders’ conference scheduled for this year, 2013.
“Nigerians will gain ideas and the recognition that this country has a lot of potential. Nigeria, as the most populous African country, will be the first to benefit. No country in the world has done enough to fight cancer and that is why there is room to do more. In Nigeria, we need to do more to fight cancer.
It is not our duty to make cancer treatment cheaper but to talk to government to improve funding and care for cancer patient. We can leverage, we can network,” Professor Adewole disclosed.
According to Lynette Denny, the Secretary/Treasurer of AORTIC and the Head, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Cape Town, South Africa, “In the treatment of cancer, Africans are starting to make progress; it is recently that people have begun to realize that cancer is real in Africa.
Other diseases like tuberculosis, HIV, malaria and others have dominated our health system but now as it stands, we have not made enough progress.”
She added, “I don’t think we have enough resources allocated to cancer control. We are doing a lot of awareness and many people develop cancer in Africa and die. Twenty two countries in Africa have no ways of treating cancer. They don’t have radiation; they don’t have chemotherapy and don’t have people trained to do surgical operations on cancer. And so, these people who develop cancer just die. If we look at the developed world, many people who have cancer can be cured and there is little of such understanding in Africa because our facilities are very poor and our people are poor.”
What role is AORTIC playing in the reduction of cancer in Africa?
AORTIC Secretary stated that the organization was established in the 1980’s and resuscitated in 2003. She disclosed that “we have gone from 70 members to about 800 members. We are a strong organization. We work with leading cancer organizations in Africa. We organize bi-annual conferences and we bring all sorts of people together.”
She explained that this programme means having a strategy for the prevention of cancer. Every country should ban smoking and everything that causes cancer should be checked. Also, there is the need to have a strategy for early detection of cancer and getting prompt treatment. “We must work to improve diagnosis and treatment of cancer” Denny insisted.
She said, “Countries that do not have such treatment machine should ensure that treatment facilities are bought and put in place.
“Much money is being spent on security and buying AK47 guns, but it is better to buy radiation machines than to buy AK47 guns. We need to have the political will. There is a lot of money in Africa and we need to put this money where it will be useful to the people. We need to also have a palliative care measure in our country. People with cancer suffer terrible pain and they die. There are many countries which do not have morphine to treat pain. We need to be more humane and make sure people die in dignity.”
So far, the tenure of Prof, Adewole as President of the organization has recorded some remarkable achievements by developing a strategic plan and a blueprint for African Cancer Control. Other achievements include the setting up of Cancer Campaign Institute to be hosted by the University of Ibadan as well as the development of a two-kit and directory for cancer control in Africa.
A peep into the strategic plan of AORTIC president, Professor Adewole, themed “Working together to prevent and control cancer in Africa” shows that the initial cancers targeted for the plan of action are breast cancer, cervical cancer, liver cancer (hepatocellular type), prostate cancer, AIDS-related malignancies and childhood cancers. The overall goal of the strategic plan is to reduce the burden of cancer in Africa by the promotion and implementation of cancer control efforts through research and training in cancer.
The specific objectives of the strategic plan (2010-2015) are to provide coherent advice, counsel and co-ordinate research planning that relates to prevention, early detection and cure of cancer; to support the management and funding of training programs in oncology with member institutions and elsewhere; to organize symposia, workshops, meetings and conferences in keeping with its objectives; to assist in the formation of cancer research programs that are relevant in Africa; to facilitate international collaboration in cancer research; and to arrange or sponsor periodic lectures by distinguished scholars in oncology.
Other objectives are to collaborate with existing organizations interested in neo-plastic diseases and facilitate the implementation of relevant and appropriate research on cancer; to establish or assist in the setting up of journals and publication of monographs and books in oncology for the dissemination of research work on cancer in Africa.
The strategic plan will also focus on the provision of scholarships and grants to facilitate the objectives as well as the provision of technical advice to World Health Organization (WHO), African Union (AU) and other governments in Africa on cancer related issues.
AORTIC is an African based non-governmental organization formed in 1983 by expatriate African cancer care workers, scientists and their friends that is dedicated to the promotion of cancer control and palliation in Africa. The organization strives to unite the African continent in achieving its goal of a cancer-free Africa, and seek to make a positive impact throughout the region through collaboration with health ministries and global cancer organizations. At present, the organization is affiliated to World Health Organization (WHO), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), etc.
To date, AORTIC is actively connected to the global community, with a vast electronic database as well as paper and electronic newsletters sent out quarterly in English and French. AORTIC has been represented at a number of cancer-related conferences around Africa and the world.
Olatunji Oladejo is the Director of Public Communication, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.
From: Guardian Published on: Thursday, May 02, 2013
From Muyiwa Adeyemi, Ado Ekiti News - National
TEARS flowed freely Thursday as the remains of Ayo Jeje, a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) killed on March 30, this year in Erinjiyan, Ekiti West local council area of Ekiti State was buried in the premises of his uncompleted building in Ado Ekiti.
Jeje, 38, was killed by suspected political thugs while preparing to decamp with others from the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to the PDP.
Meanwhile, his family has called for immediate prosecution of those indicted in the murder.
At the burial, Pastor Michael Oladunjoye, who spoke on behalf of the family, said justice must be done in the case because people know who killed Jeje. Describing the death as painful and uncalled for, Oladunjoye added that the family decided not to waste time to bury the deceased after collecting the post mortem and the death certificates at the Aramoko Ekiti General Hospital, where his body was deposited because Jeje’s parents are still alive.
He pleaded with the government to give necessary support for Jeje’s widow, Ronke and four children, having lost their breadwinner in a controversial circumstance.
According to him, “This was a clear case of murder. The death was not natural and nobody would say justice should not be done. But to us in this family, we have left the matter in the hands of God and government to do the needful in the matter by bringing the perpetrators to justice.”
From: National Mirror Published on: Thursday, May 02, 2013
ABIODUN NEJO
President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the establishment of a military base in Ekiti State as part of efforts to beef up security.
Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, who said the military base was in furtherance of the need to beef up security in the state, added that it would curb the spill-over of crimes from neighbouring states.
The governor, who spoke during a stakeholders’ meeting with traditional rulers, security agencies and representatives of different sub-ethnic groups as well as transport unions in Ado-Ekiti, said he got a message from the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, informing him of the President’s approval of the establishment of the military base.
Fayemi said that men of the Nigerian Army would now have patrol points in all the boundary towns in Ekiti to prevent criminals from creeping in from neighbouring states.
He added that the government planned to install surveillance cameras in strategic parts of the state to make the state a no-go area for men of the underworld.
According to him, the camera, which will first be installed in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, would help security agencies in tracking and curbing crime.
At the meeting targeted at dousing the tension that might arise in view of the forthcoming 2014 governorship election, the governor said the state government was holding talks with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to obtain emergency lines for residents to communicate with security agencies as well as men of the newly revitalised State Fire Service and Paramedics.
Fayemi said the government would soon send a bill to the House of Assembly for protection of informants as many of participants at the meeting claimed that people were no longer ready to give information to security agencies.
The co-chairman of the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council, Bishop Felix Ajakaye, warned journalists against sensational news reporting, saying that media reports of security issues should be done objectively.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Sotonye Wakama, urged residents to collaborate with security agencies, especially in giving out information to the agencies.
Wakama promised to work on all information given to the police on crimes as he gave out 08062335577 as the distress number for residents to report any breach of public peace.
From: Daily Sun Published on: Thursday, May 02, 2013
Our Reporter
By D. A. Ayilara
The recent episode of political violence in Erijiyan Ekiti (in Ekiti West Local Government Area) left every well-meaning indigene of Ekiti State not just a sour taste, it actually bedeviled the minds that had generally started thinking Ekiti State is gradually clambering out of the dungeon of political instability.
Subsequent involvement of the land enforcement agencies at the various levels and the arrest and transfer of the ACN Party Chief, Jide Awe to Abuja smelt of high handed political machination from the Federal hierarchy. Chief Awe, an indigene of Erijiyan was overseeing a political rally in which some members of the opposition parties were decamping to the ruling party in the state.
This rally was later invaded by some gangs, hoodlums and thugs purposedly from one opposition party whose members were among the defectors enacting a deed much like the proverbial maxim “Kaka K’eku ma je sese, a fi sawa danu” (I paraphrased this as “whosoever is not with us should be wasted”). This incident brought to mind some salient issues affecting the Nigerian political landscape and especially our dear Ekiti State on whose ground the nefarious act took place.
In As recent as 2003, the late Fuji Meastro Ayinde Barrister released a record as a review of the 2003 general election. In it he sang “Oro ibo to koja lo etike, Federal mighty power etike eni to kan lo mo etike” (I paraphrased this as “The last general election was handily manipulated by the Federal mighty power, those concerned and those that felt the pinch can tell more of the story”)
Those old enough to know have always told us that the coarse path of injustice in the Nigerian political history stained the “good name” of the Nigerian Police Force that the various transformations and rebrandings by various governments had not been able to polish the name to a decent shine. These elders talked of vendetta, victimization, and perversion of justice solely for political purposes.
This was the major reason why many politicians clamour for “the state police”. But won’t this be abused again as most of our political leaders can neither brook opposition nor criticism whether constructive or not? This is a bad inheritance for Western Nigeria but it has its worse pedigree in Ekitiland.
The immediate post-independence francas between the founding political fathers and the “Demo Phenomenon” whereby one leader deliberately enforced his will on the people and the people aptly deceived him by the phrase “Demo n mo wa, bo r’owo mi o o r’inu mi, Demo n mo wa” (I am of Demo Party (the then National Democratic Party), if you see me showing the sign with my fingers, you cannot see my mind which is against it).
The “We ti e (set it ablaze) episode” was the accumulation of that fiery time. Many people lost their lives and property worth billions of pounds was destroyed. The second Republic did not fair better as the post-1983 electoral violence devastated the West and Ondo State (Ekiti State was not yet created) witnessed the killing of that popular publisher, Fagbamigbe.
But the fourth Republic in Ekiti has been bloody. One readily recollects the gruesome and untimely deaths of the likes of Dr. Daramola, a world class economist from Ijan Ekiti, Mr. Kehinde Fasugba from Ado Ekiti, Mr. Omojola from Ifaki Ekiti and now Mr. Akin Jeje form Erijiyan Ekiti. For us in Ekiti State, these deaths reduced us, destroyed our image as peace-loving people and raised the platform of division among us.
A state as homogeneous as a single family with the same language, culture and tradition, how have we allowed transient and ephemeral political alliance to divide us to the point of instigating destructive instincts the a brother killing another brother over nonsensical political faithfulness.
Some people are quick to explain these episodes of violence on the basis of Ekiti’s personal idiosyncrasies of stubbornness and our unyielding rigidity on matters of principles and the uncompromising attitude which the Oyos termed “Agidi Talaka” (unyielding stubbornness of a poor and uncompromising stock). Really in most personal matters we live to this type.
But politics is a game of give and take, compromise, alliance made and unmade all in the concept of “No permanent friend, no permanent foe but a permanent goal of victory at the poll.” This is what obtains in Europe and the United States of America which we look up to in practises and principles as the guiding lights for our political activities. Britain which has come to be recognized as “the mother parliament” is noted as having Her Majesty’s government and Her majesty’s opposition both jostling for power in the bid to provide the best services to the people.
Each politician used his/her wits, wisdom and clout to maneuver his /her way up the ladder in making and unmaking of political alliances as he/she thinks fit. And no one loses his/her natural, business or political life in the process. You rise or fall as your ability can make you. No one victimizes or coerces you into toeing his/her line as determined by his/her personal ideologies.
Lives of great politicians taught us lessons on this: The Late President Ronald Reagan was formerly with the Democratic Party before he joined the Republican Party and rose through the ranks to the Presidency. Winston Churchill was initially with the Socialist Liberal before he joined the Conservative Party. And Nigerian political history is ridden with several episodes of cross-carpetings, joinings and defectings from one party on to another.
We should imbibe the usage of the opposition party and desist from the concept of one party politics. Only by doing this can we truly enjoy the game of politics with its competitiveness, ideals and counter ideals, one party winning while another loses only to win again as directed by expressed wishes of the people in the ballot which should be undoctored, free and fair. On these premises alone can the government of the people (what has often been termed representative democracy), by the people and for the people be truly entrenched in our nation.
I implore all Ekitis, politicians or not to eschew violence in all our dealings, to deal more in debates with the view of reaching some compromises than to continue on the principle of Tipatikuku (by fire and thunder) whether in politics or personal matters. We should allow for free choices, individual decisions and realize that variety is the spice of nature.
This was why God made us with different talents and abilities, even our physiques are different and as a great writer opined “God has made it thus that no good custom (may be I should add, practise, government or party) shall corrupt the world”. Ayilara writes from Ekiti State.
From: The Nation Published on: Thursday, May 02, 2013
Posted by: Sulaiman Salawudeen, Ado-Ekiti
The laws regulating outdoor advertisement in the state will apply to all, irrespective of people’s political affiliations, the Director General, Ekiti State Signage and Advertising Agency, Prince Adewole Ajakaye, has said.
Denying allegation that opposition politicians’ billboards in the state were removed, he said “only those billboards for which their placers had not paid were removed.”
His reaction followed an allegation by two aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former Governor Ayo Fayose and Dr. Peter Obafemi, that the government had applied the laws to “favour its own plans and purpose”.
Fayose had alleged that officials of the agency had broken into his office in the Adebayo area in Ado and removed all billboards bearing his portraits. But the DG had stated those whose billboards were removed because their owners failed to make requisite payments to the agency.
Ajakaye said: “Anytime we take unfavourable actions, they always raise the allegation of victimisation. Erection of billboards is being regulated in Ekiti State and they are all aware; so, we expect them to pay the requisite fees.
“We have always been careful in our actions. We always give our actions human face. We only removed the affected billboards carefully to make people patronise us as an income-generating body.”
The agency’s Director of Operations, Mr Ariyo Emmanuel, said some of the PDP aspirants had misinformed the public that they had fully paid, even when part payment was made.
He urged politicians and outdoor advertising practitioners to always bring their receipts to the agency when payments are made to prevent the removal of their billboards.
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