Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke on Thursday shut down Osun State Polytechnic, Iree after two rectors, Dr Tajudeen Odetayo and Mr Kehinde Alabi resumed duty.
Odetayo was suspended recently by the governor as the rector, but he returned to the campus on Thursday upon his reinstatement by the Industrial Court sitting in Lagos.
Adeleke suspended Odetayo on July 11, 2023 over allegation of fraud and appointed his kinsman, Alabi as the acting Rector but the the staff of the polytechnic faulted the governor’s decision.
Through his counsel, Rasheed Adeniyi, on August 21, 2023, Odetayo approached the Industrial Court with an order of interim injunction restraining the governor from giving effects to the letter of suspension.
The presiding judge, Justice O. A Ogunbowale, who presided over the matter in Lagos, granted the order sought by the claimant and restrained the state government and its agent from acting on the matter pending the determination of the suit before it.
However, both Odetayo and Alabi resumed duty as rector of the polytechnic on Thursday which caused confusion on the campus.
On arriving at the campus, Odetayo presented the court order to the Chief Security Officer before proceeding to the Rector’s office, escorted by a faction of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) in the school.
Few minutes later, Alabi along with his ASUP faction arrived in the school and converged on a hall on the campus.
Consequently, the state government in a statement by the Commissioner for Education, Dipo Eluwole, has shut down the institution and also froze its bank accounts.
