Hammed Shittu in Ilorin
Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has been called upon to yield to the demand of the people of Kwara South Senatorial District and site the proposed Kwara State University of Education at the College of Education, Oro, in the Irepodun LGA.
The president of a socio-cultural group, Kwara South Consultative Forum, Chief Joseph Aderibigbe, made the appeal in Ilorin while addressing journalists on the location of the proposed State University of Education.
Aderibigbe said the university’s location in the College of Education, Oro, will address the lack of location of the tertiary institutions.
He said the College of Education Oro is the oldest institution in Kwara and has all it takes to accommodate the gigantic Kwara State University of Education.
Aderibigbe said, “College of Education, Oro is the first and oldest among the three colleges of education owned by the Kwara State government. The college was proposed in 1974 and took off in 1978 as the College of Education, Oro- Ilorin, before it finally moved to Oro in 1981.
“The college was established vide edict No 2 of 1978. This is the fact and contrary to the distortion of history being peddled in some quarters.”
He added: “It has the most stable academic calendar and environment. It is the only college of education among its peers in Kwara State that has not gone on strike in the past six/seven years.
“Apart from this, the college is the only institution of its status with the largest number of functional facilities. The college has over 60 buildings and offices which serve as modern lecture rooms, theatres and halls that are conducive and can support learning and teaching activities.”
He noted that the people of the Kwara South Senatorial District have never had a full-fledged tertiary institution except the campus of Kwara State University, which was located in Osi town in Ekiti Local Government Council Area.
Aderibigbe maintained that the location of the university of education would correct the injustice that had characterised the location of tertiary institutions in Kwara.
On the call for the renaming of the University of Ilorin after the founder of the Alimi dynasty as being canvassed by the Ilorin Emirate Development Progressives Union (IEDPU), Aderibigbe said that the call was unthinkable and uncalled for.
He also said the call by the IEDPU was a move to unite Kwara, engender the spread of development across the state, and a self-serving request that will not do the highly prided state of harmony any good.
