FCET Crisis: Governing council chair, others escape as protracted protest turns violent

The prolonged crisis rocking the Federal College of Education, Technical (FCET), Akoka, degenerated into violence on Monday when some workers and students reportedly attacked the Chairman of the Governing Council of the institution, Olatunde Adenuga, and other council members, vandalising cars and other property worth millions of naira.

The Lagos State Police Command confirmed the development in a post on X by the Police Public Relations Officer for the command, Ben Hundeyin, even as he revealed that 32 persons have been arrested in connection with the violence.

PREMIUM TIMES has learnt that the school authority was preparing to shut down the campus as of Monday night.

In a viral video on X, some students and workers were seen vandalising vehicles belonging to officials of the college.

The police spokesperson said the rioting staff and students initially blocked all entrances in and out of the college and attacked the police with stones and sachets of water as they arrived at the scene of the riot.

Backstory

Since 27 May, the workers locked up the office of the Provost of the College, Wahab Azeez, and issued him a notice to quit from his official residence over his tenure of office.

The protest, championed by the workers under the umbrella of “concerned staff”, is led by the leadership of the Senior Staff Union of Colleges of Education (SSUCOEN), FCET chapter, insisting that with the amendment of the Educational Colleges Act 2023, which introduced a five-year single term of office for provosts and other principal officers of the colleges, the tenure of Mr Azeez had ended on 26 May.

However, the provost said he was appointed for the first term of four years in 2019 and that having been duly reappointed by the institution’s governing council in 2023, he already resumed his second term in office on 27 May 2023 before the amended act was signed into law on 12 June 2023.

Following letters by the unions seeking clarification on the tenure of office of the provost based on the amended act, the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, wrote the unions, affirming the legality of Mr Azeez’s second term of four years.

The protesters ignored the minister’s verdict and continued to stage daily protests on the campus, denying management members access to their offices.

Mr Mamman, represented by the Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, subsequently met with the warring parties in Abuja, and resolutions were made.

Resolutions

Despite signing resolutions reached at a reconciliatory meeting chaired by Mr Sununu, some workers of FCET continued to threaten a showdown should Mr Azeez return to the office.

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The resolutions signed by the representatives of the ministry, the governing council, and the staff unions included the reopening of the office of the college’s provost and his return to the office.

The meeting ordered an end to the prolonged protest by the workers, and the governing council chaired by Olatunde Adenuga was asked to meet with them to address the issues.

The meeting also mandated the new council to investigate the concerns raised by the staff, including the alleged misappropriation of funds reportedly approved for the college’s fencing and the appointment of the college’s bursar.