Oyo APC Accuses Gov Makinde Of Alleged Deal With Foreign Firm To Extort Students

The Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised the alarm over an alleged deal between the state government and a Sweden-based company where the foreign firm will claim a certain sum of money from the school fee payable by every student in all state-owned tertiary institutions.

APC claimed that the alleged deal was surreptitiously packaged and sealed by Governor Seyi Makinde a few weeks ago during a visit to some European countries in company of some state government officials and some leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

The allegation was contained in a statement at the weekend in Ibadan by the APC Publicity Secretary in the state, Olawale Sadare, where he accused Governor Makinde of defying calls for the rehabilitation of facilities in most public primary and secondary schools across the state only to construct and donate a multi-million naira building to the South-West Zone of the PDP.

According to the main opposition party in Oyo State, the foreign firm, SchoolTry, would receive N10,000 from the total school fee payable by each student in the name of providing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services to the tertiary institutions.

“The tragedy which befell the treasury of the 33 local government councils in the state since 2019 did not spare all the state-owned tertiary institutions as they have been at the mercy of consultants who took over the collection and management of their financial resources.

“It has been established that only Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso was made to escape the noose of the consultants who have done more harm than good to concerned tertiary institutions in the last five and a half years.

“Just as the Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education owned by the Oyo State government began to heave a sigh of relief on account of the disengagement of the Consultants milking the schools, the government came up with an idea of employing the services of a relatively unknown company based in Sweden to provide unclear ICT services while the same firm would be entitled to a sum of N10,000 from varying amount payable in school fee by every student in the affected schools,” Sadare said.

He added that while the initiative has not received the blessing of most stakeholders within the tertiary institutions, the government appears hell-bent on going ahead “and we found this development condemnable.”

“It is time Gov. Makinde allowed the Governing Boards and Management of all tertiary institutions belonging to the Oyo State government to take full charge and run their schools in accordance with the rules and laws which established them. We understand that the N10,000 per student commission ceded to the company would end up in the pockets of the same individuals who have been feeding fat on the monthly allocations of the 33 LGAs since 2019, but we plead they should allow the Pacesetter State to breathe,” the Oyo APC said.

It maintained that no significant physical development has been recorded in any of the institutions which were put under the jackboot of a particular consultant for over five years now.

Oyo APC further noted that it was extremely difficult for the lawful handlers of those schools to carry out essential services such as training of staff, maintenance of infrastructure, clearing of bush, funding of researches among other things simply because they have been denied access to the funds generated locally as well as subventions.