Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Ondo State Deputy Governor and governorship candidate of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Mr Agboola Ajayi, has described the planned reduction in the school fees of tertiary institutions by the State Government as an election year afterthought.
Mr Ajayi said one of the reasons he fell out with Governor Rotimimi Akeredolu was the increase in school fees of State-owned tertiary institutions without consideration of the earnings of parents.
The Deputy Governor said the announcement by Governor Akeredolu last week that he might consider school fees’ reduction when students are on holiday due to the coronavirus pandemic was as an afterthought, saying he is afraid of losing the October 10 governorship election.
‘The Deputy Governor had sharply disagreed with the obnoxious policy of an increase in the tuition and stoppage of the payment of WASSCE fees for secondary school pupils,’ a statement signed by Mr Allen Sowore, the Deputy Governor’s Media Adviser, read..
‘Agboola Ajayi is, however, surprised that the Governor mooted a reduction in the tuition without making reference to the efforts of the Deputy Governor overtime on the vexed and contentious issue.
‘The good people of Ondo State should be wary of this proposed supposed change of heart as it does not in any way represent a genuine love for the masses.
‘It is a manipulative Greek gift and decoy solely intended to swindle the people of their votes (that is, their power) in the forthcoming governorship election in the state.
‘A man who has refused to listen to the agitations of the people on the matter of excessively hiked fees for more than three years; whose wife told protesting university students to ‘go to hell’ cannot be trusted with dire minutes promise let alone implementation at a time when defeat at the polls has become his constant nightmare,’ he added.
The Deputy Governor urged the people of the Ondo to be steadfast and resolute in the efforts to bring about a people-friendly government which is underway through a coalition of the people themselves.
‘Akeredolu’s proposed gift should be rejected for what it truly is; it is unnecessary now after many students had dropped out of school over hiked tuition,’ he stressed.