Ibadan Polytechnic students protest, block entrance over election

Hundreds of students of the Polytechnic Ibadan, on Thursday, protested what they described as exclusion from participation in the election of the Students Union Government (SUG) executives of the institution.

The students blocked the main gate of the institution in the early hours of Thursday.

Newsmen reports that the election of SUG executives of the institution was held online on Wednesday.

It was learnt that only the current Ordinary National Diploma (OND) 2 and Higher National Diploma (HND) 2 students were given access to the portal for the election.

The exclusion then infuriated the OND 1 and HND 1 students.

The students have now blocked the entrance gate of the institution, making it difficult for other students, staff and other visitors to gain entrance into the institution.

Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the institution, Alhaji Soladoye Adewole confirmed that the election was held on Wednesday.

He admitted that only the current OND 2 and HND 2 students were allowed to vote.

Soladoye insisted that OND 1 and HND 1 students were not allowed to vote because some of them are yet to complete their registration.

He said, “The election was held online and students were barred from coming to the school to vote. They were supposed to vote from their home using the application.

“As of yesterday, only the OND 2 and HND 2 were allowed to vote because OND 1 and HND 1 have not completed the registration that will allow them to vote.

“The fact is that it is an online thing and the contestants were represented at the collation centre and they were looking at it as the votes were dropping. This is the third time we are doing online voting.”