Protesting FCE students incited by disgruntled employees – Provost

The Provost of the Federal College of Education (Technical), in Akoka, Lagos State, Dr Wahab Azeez, has said that protesting students of the college are being instigated by staff members eyeing his position.

The students had on Monday and Tuesday stormed roads in Akoka and environs protesting poor conditions and dilapidating infrastructure on their campus.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the students of the college which is affiliated to the University of Benin, Edo State, had been on the protest since last Thursday as they called on the management to address their demands.

A student who spoke with our reporter on the condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation lamented the poor hostel accommodation, learning facilities, and medical care in the institution.

He also complained about the late release of results amongst other things, lamenting that, “Nothing is functional in the school! The management should be checked; they are not working.”

An official of the students’ union, who also preferred to remain anonymous, backed the protest. When asked by PUNCH Metro on Tuesday what the students wanted, he said, “The union is demanding an improvement in the medical conditions because the medical facilities cannot even offer common paracetamol.”

The students said they wanted a change of management of the school because according to them, nothing had been done to make the living and learning conditions better in the past five years.

One of the students said the governing council had given the management an ultimatum of a month to put in place all that had gone wrong with the school’s infrastructure, noting, “We are not giving them any chance to extend their stay. We want them out!”

In one of the clips sent to PUNCH Metro, a protester alleged that it had been long since certificates were issued to graduates.

He emphasised that it would be hard for students to continue to further their education due to the delay in certificate issuance.

“That is not supposed to be so,” he cried out, stating, “With the University of Lagos nearby, and with the presence of YabaTech here, the condition of the FCE, Akoka, is not supposed to be like that.”

In another clip sent to PUNCH Metro, the students kept chanting, ‘No Road! No Road!, during the protest.

A picture sent to PUNCH Metro showed students carrying placards which read, “Release our results early so we can serve our country,” “Our media centre is very poor”, “We are not animals living in hostels that look like forest.”

The Provost,  Dr Wahab Azeez, in a phone call with PUNCH Metro claimed that the protesting students were being instigated.

“Those students who are protesting are being instigated by those staff members eyeing my position. For the past five years since I was appointed as the Provost, I’ve never had an issue with students because I was a former Student Union leader and I know what the students want,” he said.

He said the protesting students were being used against their interests.

According to him, students have no business whatsoever in the tenure of the management and they have no say in who becomes the provost.

He maintained that if the students had any welfare matters, they should be presented to the management where the said matters would be duly addressed.