Members of Esa-Oke Renewal Initiative, a coalition of elites of the Osun State town have petitioned the governor of the state, Senator Ademola Adeleke over alleged moves by the chairman of the governing board of Osun State College of Technology, Esa Oke, Mr Diran Odeyemi to ‘deplete’ the institution’s courses.
The Coalition, in the petition signed by its Chairman, Wumi Adeniyi and Chairman, Board of Trustees, Ayodele Adediran, insisted it was basing its petition on what Mr Diran Odeyemi said while featuring on a popular Radio Show in the state on Monday, February 5, 2024.
ERI quoted Odeyemi as accusing the host community of not cooperating with the school’s authorities.
Said ERI in the petition, “the allegation of the Chairman of the Governing Board, Mr Diran Odeyemi against the host community as a basis for relocating some courses from Esa Oke to Ibokun, (his home town) on the excuse of creating a Satellite Campus for the college is baseless and far from the truth.
“This spurious proposition of creating Satellite Campus is pretentiously aimed at depleting the courses and resources as well as the academic programmes of OSCOTECH, Esa Oke and ultimately to relocate the whole college to his home town, Ibokun.
“We must, at the same time condemn in its entirety, the proposal of Mr Odeyemi to relocate the Bola Ige Mechatronics Institute (BIMI) from the College’s premises in Esa-Oke to Osogbo on the basis of creating customers for the institute.
“It is important that we say it here that the BIMI was established as a learning institute for skills’ acquisition and certification for its students.
“This we consider as a bad motive to decimate and denigrate the stature of our great community leader and Asiwaju of Esa-Oke, Late Uncle Bola Ige (SAN).
The Coalition then went further to submit that “It is instructive to note that not a single course or department was removed or relocated from The Polytechnic, Ibadan when the then government of Old Oyo State created four Satellite Campuses from the main school over 40 years ago.”
ERI continued, “We condemn the proposed relocation of courses or departments from OSCOTECH, Esa Oke to Ibokun, the hometown of the Chairman, Governing Board, Mr Diran Odeyemi.
“We also want Mr Odeyemi to apologize to the people of Esa Oke for the slanderous statements he made against them.
“We equally want him to immediately disqualify himself and resign from his position to let peace reign and also restore confidence of the host community in the management of the college, otherwise, he should be removed immediately by the government of Osun State.
