Osun College of Education: APC, PDP trade words over crisis

The All Progressives Congress (APC), in Osun state has described the ongoing administrative/political schism in the state College of Education, Ila-Orangun, as a reflection of the looting spree of the state commonwealth going on in all the government establishments in the state under the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke.

The State chairman of the APC, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, on Wednesday, said the day-to-day running of the administration of the teachers’ training school is statutorily in the hand of whoever is the Provost of the institution of higher learning at any point in time.

Lawal observed that because the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was out of government in the state for twelve years, the famished statuses of some of the political gladiators in the government have transformed them into political bandits who have engaged in the stealing spree of the resources of the state.

The statement partly reads: ” The lack of administrative know-how of the head of the administration, the push-and-start Governor Ademola Adeleke, whose only area of specialization is dancing whenever two objects are struck against each other has been creating an enabling environment for the indiscriminate looting of the state resources.

“Information at our disposal attests to the fact that the looting of the state resources by the political functionaries of the PDP extraction in the state makes that of the contesting one under the board of governorship council under Mr Peter Babalola popularly known as ‘Peter Power’, a tip of the iceberg.

“It is a statement of fact that by the time that the atrocities being perpetrated by the PDP political functionaries in different capacities in various establishments become a public knowledge, it is not an overstatement that some of them would become veritable objects for stoning along the streets of the state.

“Any keen watcher of unfolding political events under the watch of Governor Adeleke in Osun State does not need to be grounded in law to observe, conclude and submit that Adebayo has been playing the role of a meddlesome interloper as the chairman of the governing council of the state College of Education, Ila-Orangun by needlessly involving himself in the day-to-day running of the teachers’ college which attraction could only be for filthy lucre.”

In a swift reaction, the State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has carpeted the All Progressives Congress (APC) position on the crisis in Ila College of Education, saying the main opposition in the state has continued to exhibit shallowness on critical issues.

The PDP in a statement signed by the Director of Media, Hon. Hezekiah Oladele Bamiji, mocked the APC over its glaring failure to portray the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke as receptive to corrupt practices, noting that Osun people cannot be deceived by the same people who supervised the mindless looting of the state while they held sway of its affairs.

Hon. Bamiji said the unpleasant development coming out from Ila College of Education is one of the manifestation of the seed of corruption sown in public institutions by the APC, saying no amount of hypocritical tales will erase the record of corruption and mismanagement that the APC holds in the minds of ordinary Osun people.

“It is deceptive for the APC to present itself as an anti-corruption voice when its record of corruption in Osun is wide and open to all. In fact, the unfortunate experience from Ila College of Education was enabled by the APC corruption style because it failed to take action when it mattered most,” Hon. Bamiji noted.

“We like to invite the public to note that the Auditor-General of the State had in a report in 2022 indicted the current Provost and a former Registrar of malfeasance. Rather than for the APC to take action, it choose to cover up for the indicted official and this must have emboldened this latest incident.

“Yet, the same APC that covered up fraud in Ila College of Education, even to the point of using its members dominated Assembly to clear them, because it touches a relative of one of its chieftain, is now concerned about corruption. What an irony!

“We have said it severally and will repeat it again that the Osun APC is a gang of mischievous elements, trying to use the people to reach for power in order to continue with the looting of Osun people common patrimony. Therefore, they are better ignored because they never meant well for the people and the State.

“Unlike what happened under the APC, Governor Adeleke has set up a committee to look into the issues in Ila College of Education, with a promise that there will be no sacred cows. Governor Adeleke or the PDP have no reason whatsoever to shield anyone and so, will not need to manipulate findings to perpetuate corruption in that institution as done by the APC.”

The PDP called on the Osun APC to face the question on accountability on the N11.9 billion refund to the state by its administration instead of the mocking anti-corruption with its voice, saying Osun people have a right to know what happened to monies that the APC received on its behalf.

“While the APC was pretending to be opposed to corruption in Ila College of Education, there were questions by Osun people on what happened to a refund of N11.9bn to the state that the APC administration received,” he noted.

“If the APC is indeed not about corruption as Osun people have witnessed, it should come out to answer this question of accountability by providing detailed explanation on how the money was spent. But we doubt it, because the APC did not just loot earnings to the state, it looted borrowed funds, which the people of Osun now go through harrowing experience to repay.”