Many workers of Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State, on Wednesday abandoned their duty posts, as students of the institution, barricaded all entrances to the institution in protest of the ‘sit down’ strike embarked upon by the academic staff Union.
The protesting students alleged that since the school opened for the first semester of 2019/2020 academic session, their lecturers had not been attending classes and blamed the development on the crises between the management and members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic.
During a visit to the institution on Wednesday, the students, who locked the school entrance and exits points, brought a disc jockey to the main entrance to the campus, who entertained them, as they prevented staff and visitors from accessing their duty posts.
Some of the protesters, who were armed with placards with inscriptions calling for the sack of the Rector, were cooking food, while others were playing table tennis.
Speaking to newsmen, the president of the Students’ Union of the Polytechnic, Adekunle Ajibade, said the students approached the management when they observed that their lecturers were not attending classes, but no concrete action was taken.
He said, “We resumed on October 14, 2020. Despite that we have paid our school fees, we have been sent out of class. Lecturers have not been coming to our classes. We are tired and we are here to say enough is enough.”
The Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr Sola Lawal, when contacted, called for calm and assured that the cause of the crises would be addressed.
Meanwhile, the management of the polytechnic in a memo signed by the Registrar, Alhaji T.I Agboola, had directed students to vacate the school premises and hostel immediately.
Efforts to get a reaction from the institution’s ASUP chairman, Adekunle Masopa, to the allegation by the students, proved futile as calls to his line were not answered, while he had not responded to the text message sent to him as of the time of filing this report.
