10-year jail term awaits convicts of cultism – Ahmed

KWARAPOLY begins 24-hour campus patrol

Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara state has ‎warned students of various institutions of higher learning in the state to eschew cultism and related offences within and outside academic environment, saying 10-year jail term awaits any students found guilty of cultism and would also be fined and face expulsion.

Similarly, Mas’ud Elelu, the Rector of Kwara State ‎Polytechnic, Ilorin revealed that the institution had engaged services of 183 Security personnel for 24-hour patrol and policing within and outside campus in order to ensure adequate security of lives and properties on-and off-campus, asking the governor to ignore calls from some quarters that Polytechnic should discontinue the use of Security Guards in curbing cultism and students’ excesses.

Governor Ahmed, who was welcomed by the Rector at the ‎23rd Combined Convocation of Kwara State Polytechnic where 48,761 graduates received ND and HND Awards between 2008 and 2016, declared that the Kwara state government would no longer tolerate any criminal acts from students, especially the students of higher learning.

“My administration has no tolerance for cultism and related activities within and outside academic institutions. Anyone found guilty of involvement in such illegality risks a ten-year jail term, a hefty fine and rustication”, the governor warned.

The governor also re-emphasised that education remains a top priority for his administration in line with recognition of functional education as a key ingredient of development and growth, just as he advised tertiary institutions in the country to make entrepreneurship a compulsory course rather than elective, and by so doing the youths will be employers of labour and not job seekers.

He said, “I therefore, encourage the Polytechnic to continue to embark on technological innovations that will address our numerous socio-economic problems and exploit emerging opportunities by partnering with the private sector in order to access funding for their research and a market for your innovations.”

Earlier, Yusuf Ali, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) donated E- Resource centre to the institution and appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to assist educational institutions, just as he admonished the students to make judicious and effective use of infrastructure and other academic facilities donated by some individuals and government.

Ali said, “I use this opportunity to make a clarion call on other patriots who are better endowed by God to choose area of intervention in the provision of infrastructure for our schools all over the country.

“The Ivy League Institutions in advanced countries, to which we now rush to send our children, like Harvard, Cambridge, Yale, MIT, Oxford etc, have made remakable progress in improving their educational system through assiatance from privated individuals, trust and foundation.”