News

Teargas Disrupt Academic Activities in Osogbo

By Web News 579

By Adenitan Akinola 

There was pandemonium in Osogbo, the Osun State Capital in the early hours of Tuesday as about thirty-five students of Fakunle Comprehensive High School around the Stadium area collapsed as a result of teargas fired by policemen during their morning drill.

The incident led to the students being hospitalized. 

Radio Nigeria gathered that men of the 39 Squadron Division of the Nigeria Police Mobile Force located opposite the school along Osogbo-Ikirun road fired numbers of teargas canisters during their morning drill which accidentally breezed into the school premises aided by wind.

A source in the school disclosed, “When the tear-gas attack occurred many of our students were fainting and we were taking them to the hospital but at a point, many of the students ran to safety, we were forced to close the school for the day”. 

The Permanent Secretary of the Osun State Ministry of Education, Mrs Adelani Aderinola, through the Information Officer, Mrs Roseline Olawuni said the mobile policemen were holding memorial exercise in honour of their fallen colleagues in Benue state when they fired the tear gas that affected the students. 

“They were shooting tear gas which affected the students in the school. However, the matter has been escalated to the Police Commissioner and has stopped the exercise. The students have been taken to the hospital and most of them have been stabilized.” 

The spokesperson of Osun State Police Command, Mrs Yemisi Opalola confirmed that the police did not fire the tear gas inside the school but they were just using it for their drill.

Speaking with newsmen, Head of Corporation Osun Ambulance, Mrs Arowosafe Olayemi explained that eleven patients were moved to Uniosun Teaching Hospital and the others were taken to Spring Hospital very close to the school at Aderin.

“Before we got there the school authority already took the students to the private hospital, you know we cannot just disagree with them because the lives of the students are so important to us“. He said 

“We were there early enough, within 5 minutes we were there because we have an ambulance close to that place, we have an ambulance at the stadium and you know that place is closer, immediately they call me I told them to move down to the school and immediately I ask them to release the students to go home because the more they inhale that thing the more the people would faint, so I told the principal to release the students to go home so that we can reduce the number.”

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Education

We Need Proper Youth Empowerment For A Prosperous Nigeria – Oyetola

By Web News 599

Osun State Governor, Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola says building a sustainably prosperous state requires strategic investment in young people in a manner that prepares them for the reality of the keenly competitive global knowledge economy.

He stated this at the Grand Finale of the second edition of the “Osun Independence Essay Competition”, organized by the Osun State Government to commemorate the 61st Independence Anniversary of the country.

Mr. Oyetola described the concern as the motivation behind organising the Independence Day Essay Competition by the Osun State Government.

Represented by his Deputy, Mr. Benedict Alabi, the governor charged young persons to always be competition-ready and be imaginative as active producers of relevant ideas for nation-building.

Governor Oyetola maintained that the goal of a functional education was the deliberate training of the mind to acquire the requisite capacity to provide workable solutions to societal challenges.

In his welcome address, the Commissioner for Regional Integration and Special Duties, Mr. Lekan Badmus appreciated the state governor for approving the 2021 Osun State Essay Competition among students of secondary and tertiary schools as part of the activities lined up to mark the 61st year of Independence of Nigeria.

Mr. Badmus told the gathering that the essay committee comprised of interdisciplinary professionals received 700 entries of students from 34 schools of both private and public higher institutions across the country. 

He explained that the competition was a paradigm shift from the traditional Independence March-Past to promote the reading and writing culture among students which is capable of encouraging healthy rivalry as well as intellectual competition in secondary and tertiary institutions. 

In a keynote address, the Chairman of the event, the former Chief of Policy and Plans of the Nigerian Army, Lieutenant General Lamidi Adeosun (rtd), gave kudos to the Osun State government for the initiative in a world where negative activities had become the norm.

General Adeosun charged participants and the teeming youth population of the state not to relent in their efforts in contributing their quota to the development of the society, adding that education, security, and other developmental needs of the nation, are a collective responsibility.

He recommended the teaching of family values and ideals as key to rebuilding the weak security architecture of the nation, maintaining that security is not only a top-down affair but also has a bottom-up dimension that requires citizens’ vigilance and responsibility.

Miss Abisola Faith Adegboyega from Fakunle Comprehensive High School, Osogbo, emerged as the winner in the secondary school category, while Mr. Victor Ayodeji Adeyemo, a medical student from Bowen University won the tertiary institution category.

The winners for the tertiary category, aside from cash prizes, also went home with a Toyota Corolla car.

Adenitan Akinola