The Okene Secondary School Old Students Association has appealed to Governor Yahaya Bello to spare the school as one of the legacy colleges of the old Northern Nigerian Government rather than turn it into a military barracks.
The association made the appeal in a statement signed by its national president, Abubakar Abdulsalam, a lawyer and made available to newsmen in Lokoja.
The association said the school, formerly known as Okene Teachers’ College before it transmuted to a secondary school in 1970, had produced a lot of great Nigerians in all fields of human endeavour.
According to the statement, “There is no doubt that the institution has produced a lot of people who are doing it proud in several areas, both at home and abroad. One of such people was the late Alhaji Bello Ipemida Ochi (the father of His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello).
We wish to use this medium to appeal to you to use your good office to ensure that the school is spared.’’
The association used the occasion to thank Governor Bello for the appointment of Prof Salawu Sadiku, an old student of the school, as the pioneer vice chancellor of the Confluence University of Science and Technology (CUSTECH), Osara in the central senatorial district of the state.