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Enoch Oyedibu
The management of the University of Osun has cancelled a geological students’ trip to Igarra, Edo State after a serious complaints on the imperative decision of the Department of Geological Sciences on their students to involuntarily embark on a field trip to the said location without their mobile phones.
The management of the institution, through a statement from its Public Relations Officer, Ademola Adesoji frown against the Geological Department’s mandatory decision, especially sojourning to such a far community with their mobile phones amid the acme of insecurity in Nigeria.
The statement reads, “due to the agitations from the students and the reality of insecurity in the country, we have to cancel the study trip and approved that the students should go ahead with the theory aspect of the work and also seek a safer place to do their field work.”
Though, he added, “during this course, the students will have to embark on a trip to a special place where they will be taught the core practice of their work and one of the places that most universities in Nigeria that take Geology as a course visit at least once in a year is Igarra, Edo State.
“Of late, the management of the Institution met with the security team and the department of Geological Sciences on ways to go about the course to ensure the students’ safety are covered. During the meeting, the school’s security advised the management that the only way they can embark on the study trip safely is for the students and the lecturers to work together as a team which meant the security team and only the leader of the team will have access to one or two utility phones which will be tracked for safety purposes.”