The host community of the newly approved Lagos State University of Education in Oto/Ijanikin on Saturday appealed to the Lagos State Government to return to status quo some courses removed from the Oto main campus.
According to them, the courses removed from the campus were moved to the LASUED Epe Annex of the institution.
The people made the appeal at a protest and news conference held at the school to press home their demand.
The protesting community members said that the removal of the courses was an affront to the National University Commission’s directive and a disrespect to the community.
The News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos reports that some of the courses removed by the state from the main campus to its Epe annex include those run by the College of Humanities Education, College of Science Education, College of Information and Technology Education and College of Management and Social Science Education.
Speaking during the protest, the Spokesman of the community, Chief Dawodu Avoseh, said the courses moved to Epe were to be at the Oto campus as directed by the NUC.
According to him, those are the courses that made the school to gain approval following the community’s struggle for the institution to be established in the area in order to drive development of the community.
Avoseh said: “The removal of the major course that gave the university its status to its Epe campus is a disservice to the people that give out land for the school to be built.
“The school is virtually empty without those courses.
“The community that benefits from students rents are the worse hit in the whole thing as the houses built for students are now empty.
“We are appealing to the state Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to come to our aid as we know such removal was done without his consent.
“We know he is a listening person that is why we are making our demand public to reach him for his action.”
Avoseh added that the community had written series of protest letters on the issue to the governor, but regretted that some persons prevented them from getting to the governor.
He noted that the community had the consent of the Obas in the area to issue a seven-day notice beginning from February 18 to the state, after which the people would shut down the school from operations.