Ajimobi appoints new management for Ibadan Poly

The Oyo state Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, has appointed new management for the state-owned Polytechnic, Ibadan.

The appointment was announced by the state Commissioner for Education, Solomon Olaniyonu, in a press statement in Ibadan on Sunday.

According to him, the governor is responding to the plea by the students of the institution who staged a peaceful protest last week over the prolonged strike embark upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic, ASUP, the Polytechnic Ibadan branch.

The lecturers were said to be protesting the refusal of the state government to appoint substantive management officers for the school for the past three years.

Mr. Olaniyonu, a professor, said the appointment was made to douse tension in the institution.

He gave the names of the new officers as Olatunde Olubadejo Fawole, a professor of Biological Sciences from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), who has been appointed Rector and Mr. Ayodele Hezekiah Fehintola as Registrar.

Others are Mr. Tiamiyu Rasheed Adeniyi, Bursar; Hammed Abayomi Bakare, Librarian and Oyetoso Olufunmilayo John, Director of Works.

The commissioner, who said the state governor, Abiola Ajimobi, has approved the appointments, added that they take immediate effect.

The striking lecturers have, among other things frowned at the running of the institution by interim officers, contending that it incapacitates the school in terms of administration.

Mr. Olaniyonu said the government, after the students' protest, invited the management of the institution to a meeting where most of the issues raised by the students were addressed.

According to him, one of such issues was payment of the remaining 40 per cent Hazard Allowance of the lecturers which he said the state government had ordered the management to ensure its payment immediately.

The commissioner said that the allowance had since been paid by the institution.

Another request of the students which the commissioner said the state government had since facilitated was payment of the Peculiar Honoraria for lecturers which he said was for the supervision of thesis, Industrial Attachment, project supervision and allied allowances.

According to the commissioner, the state government had ordered that the amount be calculated by the institution and ordered that it be paid within 90 days.

On the inauguration of a new council for the institution, the commissioner said that the state government, which recently dissolved all boards and parastatals in the state, was working on reconstituting the board of the institution.