OSPOLY: Investigation Panel Refuses To Invite Odetayo, Petitioner

There is a twist to the suspension of Dr Tajudeen Odetayo as the Rector of Osun State Polytechnic, Iree.

The investigation panel set up by the state government to investigate the allegations against Odetayo, did not invite him all through its sittings.

Findings by this medium also revealed that the panel, headed by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr. Muritala Jimoh, did not invite the petitioner to defend the petition as well.

Chairman of the Governing Council of the institution, Hon. Diran Ayanbeku, had on August 8, 2023 inaugurated the panel and gave it two-week timeline to submit the report.

According to a member of the panel, Odetayo wrote the panel on Thursday, August 17, to request that he should be invited for fair hearing.

The panel, it was gathered, did not respond to his request till the close of work on Friday.

By default, the panel was expected to have concluded its investigation by last Friday, August 18, being the last day of the two-week timeline.

However, another member of the panel confided in the medium that the panel later sent an invitation letter to Odetayo at noon on Saturday, August 19, but nobody was in the house to receive the letter.

When contacted, Dr Ezekiel Alabi, a representative of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Osun State OSPOLY chapter, confirmed that neither Odetayo, nor the petitioner was invited by the panel.

Odetayo was suspended by the state government in a letter dated July 11, 2023 and signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Muritala Jimoh.

Mr Kehinde Alabi, an indigene of Ede, was thereafter appointed Acting Rector of the institution.

The state government said Odetayo’s suspension came on the heel of allegations of financial recklessness, fraud, corruption and abuse of office.

His suspension sparked protest in the polyethnic as lecturers and non academic staff suspended activities, describing the action of the state government as an aberration.