BY OLA AJAYI
IBADAN— GOVERNOR Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State has sacked all the principal officers of the tertiary institutions in the state excluding Ladoke Akintoila University of Technology, Ogbomoso.

The affected institutions according to the Special Adviser on Mmedia, Dr. Festus Adedayo, are The Polytechnic Ibadan, College of Agriculture, Igbo-Ora and Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo.

Justifying the sack, Governor Ajimobi said there had been concerns about the regressing status of education in the state and complaints about the fading glory that the state used to record as a pacesetter in the sector.

He said: “Right now, tertiary institutions in the state have become glorified secondary schools, bedeviled by failing infrastructure, contentious leadership, falling standard of tutorials and frequent students/labour unrests.”

To put the institutions back on the right track, the governor approved the appointment of a former Head of Service of the Federation, Professor Oladapo Afolabi as the Chairman, Governing Council of The Polytechnic Ibadan.

He also approved the appointments of persons into the boards of other state-owned tertiary institutions.

To reposition the falling education standard in the state, Senator Ajimobi constituted visitation panels into all the state-owned tertiary institutions and asked all principal officers of the tertiary institutions to proceed on compulsory leave with immediate effect.

Members of the Governing Council and Visitation Panels would be sworn in at the Council Chambers of the Governor’s Office today.

According to the statement, the constitution of the panels became imperative because of the need for government to examine the status of tertiary institutions in the state and reposition them to restore the lost glory of education in the state.

Members of the visitation panel, according to the release, comprise tested bureaucrats, educationists and technocrats with pedigree in the educational sector, whose brief, among others, is to ascertain the position of things in the institutions and recommend appropriate way forward.

Adedayo said that, as part of the governor’s attempt at repositioning education and restoring the glory of the educational sector, government decided to review the sector, beginning with ascertaining the true position of things in the tertiary institutions.

The statement noted that the governor had approved Professor Dele Fawole of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) as Chairman of the Visitation panel of the state-owned College of Agriculture, Igbo-Ora while Prof Kayode Idowu, Dr. D. E. Ladipo, Sunday Aborishade, Dr. Sunday Adetona, Arc Akin Ajani and Mr. Samson Akinosho are members of the panel.

According to Adedayo, the governor also approved the name of Prof Gani Badmus as Chairman of Emmanuel Alayande College of Education’s visitation panel while Prof Mobolaji Ogunsanya, Dr. Azeem Ige, M. I. Oyafajo, Engr. Gbenga Adeyefa, Prince Abioye Olatunji and Olalekan Akangbe as members.