By Nurat Uthman
Students from the oil-producing Ilaje and Ese Odo communities, in Ondo state, have protested against the non-payment of their bursary and abandonment of their communities by the state government.
They have therefore given the state government, a 7-Day ultimatum to remit 40% oil derivation fund to the communities.
The road passing through the government house ground was barricaded by the protesting students.
They prevented free access to and from the state Accountant General office in the state capital.
Speaking, the National President of Ilaje Students Association, Agbejoye Oluwatomisin, blamed the state government for not remitting the 40 per cent derivation fund accruing to the oil-producing area of the state to the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC) for the execution of projects in the communities.
Agbejoye said that the Chairman of the commission, Sam Erejuwa, had failed the communities and students by not paying their bursary.
He accused the state government of abandoning their communities, lamenting that most of the communities have been submerged by ocean surges.
According to him, the development has deprived their parents of their means of livelihood and has made it difficult for them to pay their school fees.
Another student leader, Babalola Gbonigun, said that a number of projects embarked upon by the previous administration in the communities had been abandoned by the present administration.
According to Gbonigun, 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 students have therefore given the state government a 7-day ultimatum to remit all the funds accruing to the oil-producing communities to OSOPADEC.
They equally gave OSOPADEC a two-week ultimatum to pay all backlog of bursary due to students of higher-ups institutions of learning from the oil-producing communities.
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