For closing all public schools for the governorship primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday, the Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that Governor Ibikunle Amosun and his party have no respect for education.
In a statement released to journalists on behalf of the Chairman of the PDP in Ogun State, Hon. Sikirullahi Ogundele and signed by its Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Malik Ibitoye, the party stressed that the action is unbecoming of a government that professes to love the people.
Ogundele was quoted to have said in the statement that the action has shown that the APC-led state government only cares about its party affairs, while toying with the future of the teeming students in the state.
According to Ogundele, “we want to condemn this anti-people action by the APC. We have no doubt that this government has nothing good to offer the people of the state and their latest action has confirmed all that we have said about them in the past.
“How could the government resort to using public schools for their party primaries, when the election ought to take place at the various ward secretariats of the APC in the state? This is a clear case of abuse of power and it should be condemned by all right thinking people in the state.
“With this action, what this government is saying is that power of incumbency should be abused whereas the students have a right to education and learning, especially as they just resumed after a nationwide strike action embarked upon by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the independence anniversary public holiday.”
The party Chairman expressed surprise in the statement and said that it is unbelievable that this was coming from a Governor that went through education.
While calling on members of the public to disallow such an action in the future, Ogundele added in the statement that the people of the state have an opportunity to vote the APC out of power in 2019 and give their vote to the PDP so that “they can be free from an insensitive and oppressive government.”
Alhaji Ibitoye said further in the statement that Ogundele advised the state government to offer an unreserved apology to the people of the state for taking such an action and urged it not to repeat such in its remaining primary elections.
The party chairman maintained that with the action, it is obvious that the APC has taken politics beyond education and that Nigeria did not need this “unnecessary show of power after 58 years of independence.”
“We have observed that this state government has set the state backwards since it got to office in 2011. This could be seen in the state of infrastructure in the state, poor education standard that has set the state backwards in external examination such as West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the Universal Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) amongst others.
“There is no way we can sit back and allow such an impunity to continue in our state that is noted for being the first in educational development in the past.
“Governor Ibikunle Amosun must be cautioned, while his party, the APC should be shown the way out of governance in 2019.
“Enough of recklessness, insensitivity and abuse of power by a government that got to office with change mantra.
“Probably what they were saying was change from good to bad, but we will resist this as a party in the most civilised manner,” Ogundele was quoted to have said in the statement.
 on Tuesday, the Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that Governor Ibikunle Amosun and his party have no respect for education.){kind=link}