By Dayo Johnson, Akure
YOUTHS in the Ondo South Senatorial District, weekend, kicked against the starting of the state University of Science and Technology, OSUTECH, from a temporary site by the state government.

The state government, had, after the return of the license of the university by the NUC, decided to kick start the institution from a temporary site.

But the youths, under the aegis of Ondo South Youth Forum, OSYF, at a press conference in Okitipupa, said the decision to start off the university at a skill acquisition center at Idepe was borne out of hatred.

According to their spokesman, Bidemi Obayangban, “Out of his hatred for OSUTECH project and our people, Dr Mimiko has now decided to move from the on going work at the university campus to the skill acquisition center at Idepe to start a university.

The youths said that “since N1.5b provision is in the 2010 budget, we plead that the governor should release this urgently to complete a selected part of the OSUTECH campus and start the University there.

In a swift reaction, the state government accused the opposition as sponsoring the youths to bring up the matter of the university that had been settled.

Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Kolawole Kolawole Olabisi, explained that “the contractors that handled the construction works at the university’s permanent site did shoddy jobs because the actual amount released to them was a far cry compared to the N25bn earmarked for the projects.”

Olabisi, who described the OSYF as a sponsored faceless group, warned the individuals who were speaking through them, “to allow Governor Mimiko to implement the lofty programmes and policies he had for the people of the state and stop teaching him how to run his government”

He said there was nothing wrong for a government to start a university from a permanent site while serious efforts were on-going to complete the structures already started by the former administration on the permanent site.

But the youths said that the construction work in the University were to cost N5b out of which the immediate past administration had paid N2.5b by the end of 2008 and had another N5b approved in the2009 budget.

The youths said that since February that the present administration took over “all the contractors have been stopped, all their accounts frozen and has since not release a kobo to the institution.

According to them “this is important as such a solid foundation will continue to attract quality staff and students subsequently

Obayangba said that if the governor “does not want to do this, he should just leave us severely alone. We are confident that some day will come when an administration that appreciates fairness and quality education will rule in Ondo State.

He noted that initially the University was to start off with three schools, Science, Information and Communication Technology and Engineering.