STAFF OF RESEARCH INSTITUTE BUILD A MOCK COFFIN IN PROTEST FOR THEIR BOSS TO BE REMOVED

Staff of the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, (IAR&T), Apata, Ibadan, a campus of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife trooped out en-masse Monday in a peaceful demonstration against their Executive Director, Professor Benjamin Adefemi Ogunbodede over allegation of embezzlement totaling N192. 5million.



The workers alleged that N177.5 million was withdrawn from the Institute’s account by the embattled director for the payment of staff hazard allowance which they claimed was never paid them.
The workers also alleged that “the management claimed to have spent N15million meant for harvesting of crops produced by the Institute when no such activity was carried out in any of the Institute’s stations”.





The workers from all the labour unions on the campus carried a mock coffin and placards bearing different inscriptions and insisted that the removal of Ogunbodede was the only panacea to the resolution of the graft logjam.
The mock coffin was carried to the St. Paul Anglican Church, Apata, in Ibadan, the church where Professor Ogunbodede not only worships, but has also been ordained as ‘venerable’.
They ended the protest at the institution’s administrative block where they held a mock funeral service for Ogunbodede and thereafter buried the coffin.





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