Ondo oil-producing area indigenes protest unpaid bursary

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Ondo oil-producing area indigenes protest unpaid bursary

Some students who are indigenes of Ilaje and Ese-Odo Local Government Areas of Ondo State, on Wednesday, embarked on a protest on Wednesday over their unpaid bursary.

The angry students also alleged that their communities had been abandoned by the state government.

The protesters barricaded the road that leads to the state Accountant-General’s office, in Akure, preventing workers from gaining entry into the premises.

They accused the government of not allowing the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission to work by allegedly failing to remit the 40 per cent derivation fund accruing to the oil producing area for the development of the region.

Speaking during the protest, the National President of Ilaje Students Association said the OSOPADEC had not paid their bursary.

He also said the state government had abandoned their communities, saying most of the communities in Ilaje LG had been submerged by ocean surges.

He said, “This development has deprived our parents of their means of livelihood making it difficult for them to pay our school fees.”

Another student leader, Babalola Gbonigun, said several projects embarked upon by the previous administration in their communities had been abandoned by the Governor Rotimi Akeredolu-led administration.

“The failure of the state government to remit the 40 per cent derivation fund to the OSOPADEC has deprived the oil-producing communities of infrastructure development.”

The protesting students gave the state government a seven-day ultimatum to remit all the funds accruing to the oil-producing communities to OSOPADEC.

They also gave OSOPADEC a two-week ultimatum to pay all the backlog of bursaries due to students of high institutions of learning from the oil-producing area of Ondo State.