By GBENGA ARIYIBI and DAPO AKINREFON
Ekiti State Government has dismissed insinuations that it had the intention of disenfranchising students of the state university in Saturday’s election.

It also advised the Labour Party,LP, Gubernatorial Candidate, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele not to politicise the mid semester break declared by the Governing Council of the institution.

A statement by the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Mr Tayo Ekundayo, debunked claims that the students were forced to go home.

His words: ’’There was no plan to disenfranchise the students  as most of the students were resident in the state and would therefore   be able to  vote during the election if they were registered.”

Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State

“It is a common knowledge that the elections are around the corner. Every one knows that security is the number one issue in Nigeria today. I am sure the governing council of the university made up of seasoned administrators and caring parents must have held wide ranging consultations in arriving at its decisions .  I know  that they must have considered the fact that most of the students don’t live with their parents  and they could easily fall prey to unscrupulous politicians who could negatively  use them  during the elections’’

“Why will  government  issue subtle threats ?  Why will government forcefully eject students from their private residences knowing that most of them live outside the campus? How many students have been forcefully ejected   from their private residences? The Government of Ekiti State is student friendly  and  has no outstanding issue to resolve with the labour and student  unions in EKSU, so why will it panic over  the likely voting pattern of the students. All these allegations are  not only baseless but are contradictions of logical reasoning.’’

‘’The  Labour Party candidate has again demonstrated that  he is a master in the game of subterfuge  and telling blatant lies just as he lied the other day that he  had some members of the state executive council as his backers.”

You have disenfranchised us — Ekiti students

Federation of Ekiti State Students Union, FESSU, has kicked against the closure of the Ekiti State University by the state government over Saturday’s governorship elections.

In a statement by its National President, Comrade Abegunde Moses, the student body said the move was aimed at disenfranchising Ekiti students.

Moses sai: ”FESSU is totally against the closure of Ekiti State University and the compulsory three weeks holiday as this holiday has claimed the life of one of our students.

We see this as a means to disenfranchise Ekiti students. It will be recalled that during the 2011 Ekiti federal and state assembly elections, students were allowed to vote, so why is the governor sending us home when we ought to exercise our civic right?”

The group also demanded the commencement of the payment of bursary and scholarship which had ceased for the past three years.

“We will mobilise and sensitize our students to vote massively against the second term of Dr. John Kayode Fayemi as he has done absolutely nothing to the student populace of Ekiti State origin.

The progress of Ekiti State is our concern and we are poised to bring that lofty ideal into manifestation with consistency of purpose and focus on our collective goal.

‘’We appeal to the state government to make provision for proper youth/student development projects. With this, we believe it will enable our youths/students to focus on the need to be self dependent.

If the youths/students are the harbinger of development in any given society, all arsenals should be channelled towards achieving that.”

Furthermore, the association said, “we are not tools in the hands of any politician. We have the mandate to be the voice of Ekiti students and be the trumpet of their concrete desire and as such eschew partisan politics in its entirety”.