Cocoa agency workers protest in Ibadan

Hundreds of workers of the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) in Ibadan, Oyo State, yesterday barricaded the main entrance of the institute with loads of sands and log of woods, over their welfare.
The aggrieved workers were also joined in their demands by some community leaders and youth who shared their feelings, as they called for the immediate removal of the executive director of the institute, Professor Malachy Akoroda, whom they accused of mal-administration.
The protesters also took to the Ibadan-Ijebuode road as they displayed their grievances while the women among them who were almost naked were joined by their male counterparts chanting anti-management slogans.
The presence of the police did not deter them from their agitation.
A paper jointly signed by Chief Yekeen Ogunyode, the Baale of Odo Ona nla, and  Comrade Solomon Adebiyi decried the decision of the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mr Leye Oyebade, to use brutal force to suppress legitimate protest at the behest of the agency’s boss.
Professor Akoroda said he won’t speak on the matter “except with the express permission of the permanent secretary.”