Otuoke Youths Close down Federal University in Bayelsa 05 Sep 2014 Hundreds of students of the Federal University, Otuoke in Bayelsa State, the hometown of President Goodluck Jonathan, were yesterday forced out of the campus by irate youths of the community who accused the institution of refusing to employ and give out admission slots to indigenes of the community. The students were having their second semester examinations when they were forced to flee as the youths barricaded the entrances to the school chanting war songs in protest against the institution’s management. The protest was called off following the deployment of armed policemen and men of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) and the Oloibiri clan head of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) led by Mr. Osaanya Osaaya. Before the deployment, the military men on guard at the president’s home refused to be drawn into the crisis even as they remained in red alert. The protesting Otuoke youths accused the management of the university of discrimination, lamenting that no recruitments for employment have been done in the last two years. “We demanded that a total of 319 names agreed by the community should be employed. We also demanded admission slots by the university. We also demanded that a Memoradum of Understanding (MoU) with the community on issues of employment and admission.” But the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Mobolaji Aluko, said though the university had never failed in engaging the host community of Otuoke on issues of employment and admission as stipulated in the provided legislation, “community pressure will come up and we have handled them well. But we don’t want to be compelled and the academic activities of the students disrupted. It is not the protest by the youths that forced us to listen but the need to sustain our community relations policy and not allow community-student clash.” Aluko said the institution presently has in its employment a total number of 1,300 staff with a student capacity of 1,040. He disclosed that the quota system of employment showed that the indigenes of various communities in the state constituted 760 of its total staff strength, while Ogbia and Otuoke community have 350 and 150 persons respectively. The VC noted that a memorandum of understanding have been reached with the community through the paramount ruler, Obanema of Otuoke, “We have agreed to engage the indigenes based on the increasing requirements of employment in the next few months. The demanded names submitted for employment were done without required qualifications and we have asked them to attach to the names their qualification and we will conduct interview to affirm competence. “We have informed them that we must be careful about fulfilling the Federal Character provision. It is possible we will increase our employment quota by 25 per cent due to our increasing needs but we must follow due process. And we have also insisted that the admission slots given to the community and others must be in compliance with the provision of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB).” ThisDay
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 05:58:33 +0000
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