Posted by From Tunde Sanni in Ilorin on
Rector of Federal Polytechnic Offa, Kwara State, Dr. Razak Bello, has raised an alarm that cultists are now employing the use of short message service (SMS) device on mobile phones to issue death threats to some officials.
Rector of Federal Polytechnic Offa, Kwara State, Dr. Razak Bello, has raised an alarm that cultists are now employing the use of short message service (SMS) device on mobile phones to issue death threats to some officials.
Bello, featuring on a personality interview programme, NewsKeg of the Correspondentsâ?? Chapel of the Kwara State Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) confirmed that some security officials of the polytechnic had rushed to him to show him the death threats posted through SMS to their phones.
Aside from the security officials, he confessed of having received several death threats from the cultists himself, apparently owing to his confrontational policy to eliminate all tendencies of cultism in the institution.
The chief executive said he had turned to Governor Bukola Saraki and the two security chiefs of both the SSS and the Police for action.
Though he said he placed his security in the hands of the creator, Bello however stated that when the death threats were becoming general, the institution devised a new means of providing security around the premises of the polytechnic so as not to be caught off-guard.
He expressed satisfaction with the modest success of the war against cultism in the polytechnic, a feat that he attributed to the slain leader of the anti-cult squad in the institution, Gbenga Joseph by people suspected to be cultists penultimate weekend.He expressed shock at the death of the cop and promised to lead a sympathy delegation of the polytechnic to the state police command as well as the family of the slain cop to condole them.
He said the institution would feel the death of the cop more due to his attachment to the institution in identifying cult members and arresting them.
He stated that due to the murderous activities of the cultists, the management had written the state government to request for police presence around the school.
The rector vowed that the spirit of the slain cop shall be kept alive by ensuring that cultism is totally eliminated at the polytechnic as well as the neighbouring Offa and Erin-Ile communities.
The presence of the policemen, even against the financial pains to the institution, Bello said, would institute the culture of peace and tranquility permeating the polytechnic community.
He appealed to the federal government to assist the policemen by providing them with vehicles to aid their mobility.
As a first sign, the polytechnic chief executive hinted that the management of the institution has resolved to phase out part time programmes from the institution because they are fast becoming a breeding place for cult activities and other related offences.
Though the decision, Bello hinted, had been taking weeks back, he however expressed the boldness to use the death of Joseph to pursue the resolution with utmost resoluteness.
In addition to the fact that the programme was becoming a breeding ground for cultism, Bello also explained that the programme was not meeting its target audience who are the working class and who the programme was designed for.
He said younger students than the working class people the programme were designed for had populated the programme.
He stated that the management had devised certain programmes, including monthly lecture series, to keep the lecturers busy.
He said the polytechnic would need enormous funding to keep the spirit of the institution alive.
He mentioned obsolete equipment that needed to be renewed to sustain the academic excellence of some engineering courses.