Students protest non-payment of lecturers’ salary in Osun

Students of Osun State owned tertiary institutions yesterday staged a protest over continued strike by their lecturers owing to non-payment of salary by the state government.
The protest grounded activities at the state secretariat and office of the governor for several hours. The students called on the state governor, Rauf Aregbesola, to pay lecturers salary so that they could go back to school.
The protesters include students of Osun State Polytechnic, Iree, Osun State College of Technology, Esa Oke, Osun State College of Education, Ilesha and Osun State College of Education, Ila-Orangun.
The leaders of Osun Axis of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS Joint Campus Council), Awowole Samuel and Adekitan Lukman said they embarked on the protest, because the situation was affecting their education.
The students lamented that Governor Rauf Aregbesola had totally neglected the education sector in the state.  All efforts by men of the Nigeria Police Force to pacify the students were fruitless.
Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Education, Lawrence Oyeniran, who attempted to address the students, was booed. They attempted to assault him but operatives of the Directorate of State Security and policemen whisked him away.
The students said, “The indefinite strike has been on since June 11th 2015.  And we have used every peaceful means to appeal to the Osun State government to find a lasting solution to problem. Sadly enough, since the strike commenced till this present moment, the government of Osun has done nothing reasonable to persuade the lecturers to go back to work and this shows that the present government has no concrete plan for the education sector”.