Ede Poly Threatens to Arrest Ex-Student for Criticizing Fees Hike

Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State, Ex-Student, identified as Adejayan Gbenga has been threatened with arrest by the management for criticizing fee hike.

Gbenga said that the management of the institution threatened to arrest him over an open letter that he wrote to the rector of the institution, Dr. John Adekolawole, criticising the new increment in fees of fresh students of the school for the 2021/2022 academic session.

The rector, who later spoke to The PUNCH confirmed the said increment, which he claimed was necessary due to the new cost of production which he said had astronomically increased. He, however, denied the threat of the arrest.

Meanwhile, recordings provided to The PUNCH revealed that one Mr. Owolabi who claimed to have called from the security department of the institution threatened to arrest Gbenga from anywhere in the country even if he did not honour the invitation by the security department, linking the reason to the issues he had with the rector of the school.

When contacted, Mr. Owolabi said he only talked to him like a father and son.

Meanwhile, chats seen by our correspondent also showed that the rector had reached out to Gbenga, chastising him over the said open letter, saying he was uncultured and subsequently inviting him to his office.

Dr. Adekolawole, who justified the fee increment in the chats, said, “There’s no deceit anywhere. It’s never out of the way for institutions to increase their fees whenever it becomes necessary as in this case.

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“Your father is not the owner of the School neither are you in any way running the school. In law, you are not an interested party nor a stakeholder! Why do you allow yourself to be sponsored by those against the progress of the institution to be inciting the students and insulting Management?

The chats showed that he subsequently called the judgment of God on Gbenga, who had graduated from the institution in 2017.

“If you don’t desist from such inimical errand, the God of Heaven will judge you and your cronies in Jesus Mighty Name. Amen and Amen.”

Dr. Adekola has been increasing fees since he became rector, student says

A student who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Dr. Kolawole had been increasing fees since he became the rector of the institution in the 2017/2018 academic session.

“He always increases the new students’ fees every year,” the source said, adding that they had given the management 72 hours to reverse the increment.

The PUNCH gathered that students who paid N32,000 and N36,000 depending on their faculties, as fresh full-time students in the 2019/2020 academic session, would now be paying N51,800 as the new fee, which included an “acceptance fee balance” of N5000 which some of the students said was fraudulent as they already paid acceptance fee earlier.

Also, part-time students who paid around N55,350 and N59,350 would now pay N97,300 as the new fee.

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CREDIT: ALLSCHOOL, PUNCH