The host community of the newly approved Lagos State University of Education (LASUED) Oto/Ijanikin, on Saturday appealed to the Lagos State Government to return to status quo some courses removed from the Oto main campus of the institution.
According to them, the courses removed from the campus were moved to the LASUED Epe Annex of the institution.
The people made the appeal at a protest and news conference held at the school to press home their demand.
The protesting community members said that the removal of the courses was an affront to the National University Commission’s (NUC) directive and a disrespect to the community.
Some of the courses removed by the state from the main campus to its Epe annex included College of Humanities Education, College of Science Education, College of Information and Technology Education, College of Management and Social Science Education courses among others.
Speaking at the meeting, the Spokesman of the community, Chief Dawodu Avoseh, said that the courses moved to Epe were to be at the Oto campus as directed by the NUC.
According to him, those are the courses that made the school to gain approval following the community’s struggle for the institution to be established in the area in order to drive development of the community.
“The removal of the major course that gave the university its status to its Epe campus is a disservice to the people that give out land for the school to be built.
“The school is virtually empty without those courses.
“The community that benefits from students rentage are the worse hit in the whole thing as the houses built for students are now empty.
“We are appealing to the state Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to come to our aid as we know such removal was done without his consent.
“We know he is a listening person that is why we are making our demand public to reach him for his action,” he said.
Avoseh added that the community had written series of protest letters on the issue to the governor but regretted that some persons prevented the letters from getting to the governor.
He noted that the community had the consent of the Obas in the area to issue a seven-day notice beginning from Feb. 18 to the state after which the people would shut down the school from operations.
Recalled that Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED) l, an higher education institute located in Oto-Awori community in the Oto-Awori area of Ojo, Lagos State, awarding Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) has been upgraded to a university, now called Lagos State University of Education, LASUED.
We don’t want to go back to ijaniki
We are okay here in epe
We are not going back to ijaniki we are good here at epe we’ve spent a lot of money I.E house rent , T fare and some others
So leave us here at epe we are good
The following are the four Colleges taken to Epe.
1. College of Management and Social Sciences.
2. College of Specialised Professional Education
3.College of Language and Communication Arts
4. College of Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education while they retain three Colleges in the main campus.
1.College of Humanities Education
2.College of Science Education
3.College of information Technology.
Non of the four colleges moved to Epe can be effectively taught due to;
1. The land the people of epe claim they have for expansion of the school has an ongoing court case.
2. There is no Language laboratory on the campus at Epe. The one they claim they have is the picture of the main campus (Oto/Ijanikin) which was taken to the state.
3. Majority of the Lecturers who taught the students are at the main Campus (Oto/Ijanikin)
These courses need to be move back to the main Campus because everything needed for the course to be effectivel
are available right here in the main Campus (Oto/Ijanikin).
✓ The main campus (Oto/Ijanikin) as at September, 2022 is blessed with almost 80 PhD holders at academic and 3 at non academic. About 10 are ready for defense of their PhD while about 45 are presently embarking on it.
✓ Modern Liberary Complex built by TETFUND is one of it’s kind which has no rival in any of the Lagos State Tertiary institutions.
✓ Newly constructed E-Library/ICT building donated by Senator Olamilekan Adeola
✓ Under construction 300 sitter Lecture Theatre with offices.
✓ Facelift of Sporting Facility by TETFUND
✓ Ultra modern Admin Building by the Lagos State Government which is near completion
✓ Technical workshops for Vocational and Technical Education with modern equipments, tools and Machines with experienced instructors and technicians.
✓ Well equipped Science Laboratories with competent and experienced lab technologists and instructors.
✓ Well equipped Language Laboratory with competent technician and instructors
✓ Modern Health Center with modern and sophisticated equipments that serves both the College and the College community. It has expert and qualified personnel.
✓ 200 sitter Lecture Theatre by His Royal Highness, Oba Oloto of Oto Kingdom.
*Adequate power supply to augment the existing one through the national grid.
*Expanse land yet to be utilized available for further projects and development.
*All the aforementioned are in addition to the already existing structures in the College which includes – standard ICT Building, 6 standard Lecture Halls, 3 gigantic Red Brick Buildings built during Gbolahan Mudashiru Gigantic buildings for School of Languages, SASS and Vocational respectively. Offices abunds*
So! I wonder with all these up to date aforementioned facilities, students and major courses have to be moved to the Epe annex where equipment and facilities are not on ground to accommodate the population and courses?
Mr Governor should pls look into this issue critically and do the needful for the sake of the future of the students.