Academic staff members of the Kwara State College of Education (Technical), Lafiagi, staged a protest on Wednesday over alleged neglect of the institution by the state government.

The protesters, under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of the institution, decried the lack of development in the institution, blaming the situation on the absence of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) intervention since 2019.

The union chairman, Muritala Sulaiman, in an interview with Peoples Gazette, condemned the removal of the institution from TETFund as harmful, accusing Governor Abdulrahman Abdurasaq of sidelining the institution from opportunities.

“Since 2019, our institution has been removed from TETFund,” Mr Sulaiman said. “Since 2019, everything has remained standstill. No development in the institution in any way. People going for programmes have been affected. Buildings are collapsing and no support from the government.”

While alleging unwarranted bias on the part of government over the treatment of the institution, Mr Sulaiman said other state-owned colleges of education in the state benefit from TETFund intervention.

“They visited the three colleges in the state in the bid to convert one to a university. Based on the governor’s calculations and other things, he gave it to COED Ilorin. To our dismay, the government said the college will be in co-existence with the new university in terms of access to funding. They know the implications that college (s) removed from TETFund won’t be able to reinstate,” the chairman added.

Mr Sulaiman further said only the College of Education in Lafiagi is not running regular degree programmes in the state, accusing the state government of withholding funds required for accreditation.

“Among all the public colleges of education in the state, only our college is not running regular degree programmes. The college should have been the first to do that but all efforts made since 2010, nothing has been done. Meanwhile, colleges in Ilorin and Oro have been granted the opportunity to run degree programmes.

“Despite the situation and neglect by the state government, our members have been up and doing and dedicated. We don’t support any strike action that would affect students. Weeks ago, we had our congress despite recent insecurity rocking the local government where the school is located,” he explained.

The chairman urged the state government to do the needful, saying “speedy intervention is necessary to save the institution from collapse”.

Sa’adatu Modibbo Kawu, the state commissioner for tertiary education, did not respond to a request seeking her comment on the development.

The chief press secretary to the governor, Rafiu Ajakaye, could also not be reached for comment as calls to his line were unanswered.