On Monday, thousands of tertiary institution students from Ondo State took to the main streets and government offices in the State capital of Akure, to protest the over three years of non-payment of their bursary and scholarship allowances by Governor Olusegun Mimiko.
On Monday, thousands of tertiary institution students from Ondo State took to the main streets and government offices in the State capital of Akure, to protest the over three years of non-payment of their bursary and scholarship allowances by Governor Olusegun Mimiko.
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The students, under the aegis of the National Association of Ondo State Students (NAOSS), shut down the entrance to the Governor's offices and blocked staff from accessing the premises while demanding to personally meet with Governor Olusegun Mimiko, to explained reasons for the delay in their bursary allowance.
The students blocked the main roads in the State capital including the popular Oba Adesida road while chanting different solidarity songs and carrying different placards bearing anti-government inscriptions.
The protesters paralyzed business and economic activities in Akure for several hours as commercial and private drivers were forced to stop their operations. Meanwhile, market and store owners shut down their businesses for fear of being looted by the rampaging students.
While protesting, the students said they were against the State government for not been sensitivity to their plight for the past three years after refusing to pay their bursary and scholarship allowances.
Led by their national president, Charles Adeolu Iwakun, the angry students berated the present administration in the State for not fulfilling its promises to pay their bursary and scholarship allowances before the expiration of year 2015.
Many of them told a SaharaReporters correspondent in Akure, that the State government, under Governor Mimiko, had refused to pay their N10,000 stipends despite undergoing screening and verification exercises.
The students, who were guided by security agencies which included officers of the Nigeria Police Force, and officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were observed forming a united force and repeatedly called for the scrapping of the State Scholarship and Bursary Board.
Speaking on behalf of the students, Charles Iwakun, said the students had to show their grievances by blocking and protesting on the main roads, after several attempt to make the State government listen to their demands failed.
He informed SaharaReporters that the students' leadership had written a series of letters directly to the office of the governor and the State scholarship board on the need to attend to their plight but yielded no positive result.
"We are not here to fight the government but to let them know that they must pay our 2014, 2015, 2016 bursary allowance including the scholarship stipends", he said.
According to him, the refusal by the State government to pay the bursary allowance had forced some indigent students to seek illegal jobs in order to maintain their academic standard and performance in the various higher institutions of learning in the country.
The Chief of Staff to the Governor, Kola Ademujimi,said the government had no money but assured the students that the administration would reexamine their plight.