The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has commiserated with the families of seven students who lost their lives in auto crash last weekend at the main gate of the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado-Ekiti.
Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in a statement released in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday, said that while the party sympathised with the bereaved families of the dead students, it regretted that the students lost their lives to circumstances that could have been avoided if Governor Ayodele Fayose had been responsive and committed to service to the people.
“These students should have been busy preparing for or writing their examinations if the state government had not created a crisis situation by refusing to pay subventions to the university since January, leading to a strike action by the academic and non-academic staff that rendered the students unengaged for the exuberance that led to that unfortunate incident,” Olatunbosun explained.
He said government’s subvention to the university is not up to the cost of one of the six mansions that the EFCC had traced to Fayose as proceeds of alleged fraud, regretting that personal comfort had supplanted service to the people, particularly young people that deserved care and mentoring.
Olatunbosun accused the governor of abandoning the work schedule on the completion of the stretch of road where the accident occurred, explaining that if the governor had not abandoned the road, the sad incident could have been averted.
He also accused the governor of abandoning services that were of paramount interest to the people, such as paying subvention to the state institutions and construction of important road network, in favour of “controversial white elephant projects” over which allegations of frauds were being raised by EFCC against the governor.
Asking the governor to stop shedding crocodile tears over the incident, Olatunbosun said “We have heard about alleged mindless looting of the treasury all geared towards private comfort through abandoned airport project and over-priced and needless flyover project while transparent service to the people has been put in abeyance.
“Those students don’t deserve that sad end if a thought had been spared to see being in government as a service to the people.
“Unfortunately in Ekiti State under Fayose, government is seen as a private business for a maximum profit of an individual while service to the people has no place in the government’s development agenda.”
While commiserating with the parents of the deceased, students body and management of EKSU, Olatunbosun urged the governor to restore work schedule on the road by spending the Federal Government’s refund he had collected on Ado-Ifaki road to complete the stretch of the road to avert future occurrence.
He also urged the government to pay the university subvention for resumption of academic and administrative activities in the school to restore sanity and peace to the university.
