Students under OSOPADEC protest non-payment of bursary

STUDENTS from Oil Producing Areas of Ondo State recently held a peaceful protest in Akure, the state capital, over non-payment of their bursary.

 President of National Association of Ilaje students and a 300 level student of the University of Lagos, Comrade Victor Adeya, in a statement made available to The Guardian, explained that on December 16, 2014, during a meeting held at the Ondo State Area Command Office, the Chairman of the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC), Pastor Johnson Ogunyemi, promised to pay the students between December 25 and 29, 2014, but failed to keep the promise till date.

  He said the commission owes bursary allowance for 2012/2013 academic session and 2013/2014 academic session, a deprivation that provoked students to embark on the peaceful protest. 

    According to him: “Following our submission with the Assistant Commissioner of police that if our money is not paid before December 31 we would embark on a protest, on January 8, 2015, we actually went for a protest to the commission. Though the police made relentless efforts to persuade us to abort our protest and demands but we resisted blatantly.”

  “We are, therefore, calling on our governor to urgently help us and substitute Ogunyemi. He had earlier stated that he doesn’t have the courage to present the budget before the governor for approval, this shows that he is incompetent.”

  Commenting on the allegation that the students displayed unruly behaviour to the police, he said: “We did not take weapons, we did not attack the police. The policemen that were injured were those ones that jumped out of their moving van to show their military competence, to prove to Ogunyemi that they deserved the money he paid them and to save him from humiliation.”