Youths, women, and traditional rulers from Omuo Ekiti from Ekiti East Local Government trooped to the streets on Friday morning protesting the alleged injustice meted out to them by relocating the Federal College of Education (FCE) meant for the town to meant for the town to Ilawe Ekiti of the state.
The protesters who carried placards with various inscriptions read: “On Omuo FCE we stand! No more! No less”; “This injustice must be redressed Return Our FCE back to us”; “Don’t rob Peter to pay Paul, FCE belongs to Omuo Ekiti”, among others.
The development has brought commercial activities and movement for several hours to a halt on Saturday in Omuo-Ekiti as the roads were barricaded forcing travelers going to Abuja and those passing through the major highway in the town to Lagos, Ado Ekiti and to neighbouring Ondo State to endure the situation.
Efforts by security agencies like the Nigerian Police, the Directorate of State Service and others drafted to maintain law and order and to allow a free flow of traffic were not successful.
Earlier in the morning, the paramount ruler of the community, His Royal Majesty, Oba Noah Omonigbehin had directed that all markets, shops and other businesses must not open as a mark of protests for the alleged injustice brought on the community.
The leader in the community, Chief Segun Akanle while addressing protesters appealed to President Bola Tinubu and the Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Abiodun Oyebanji to rescue Omuo Ekiti by returning back the Federal College of Education to the town.
Akanle who described the citizens of the community as law-abiding, noted that Omuo Ekiti has been working for the establishment of the FCE for over ten years, stressing that, a bill establishing the institution has been passed by both the 8th and 9th National Assembly and awaiting presidential assent.
“We have 12 communities in Ekiti East and there is no federal or state presence in any of them. A bill establishing a College of Education has been passed and waiting for the president’s assent before the Ilawe people went through the backdoor to alter the location of the school.
“Why would the government establish two federal institutions in Ilawe and leave the remaining parts of the constituency? This is not acceptable. We have confidence in Tinubu to do the needful by righting the wrong and returning the Federal College of Education to Omuo Ekiti where it rightly belongs.
“The Olomuo of Omuo Ekiti, Oba Noah Omonigbehin said he was a participant at the public hearings by the Senate leading to the establishment of the school in both the 8th and 9th sessions.
“We presented a memo to the August legislative assembly. We wonder how someone who has not asked for a thing would be given. I urge President Tinubu to correct this injustice and return the institution to Omuo Ekiti,” he said.
Veteran journalist and recipient of A.B.C Yola, Reporter of the Year Award (1997), Hassan Umar Shallpella, works with WAP as a Regional Correspondence. He was trained at Institute of Mass Communication and Technology Jos and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Training School Lagos.He was a News desk Editor and a Correspondent at the Punch newspaper and till 2019, was the Deputy Editor ofThe Scope newspaper.
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