Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti join Lagos in shutting all schools

The #EndSARS protests being staged across many states in the South and Abuja have prompted the governments of Ondo, Oyo and Ekiti states to shut all public and private schools as hoodlums are said to have hijacked the peaceful agitation by the youth for good governance and an end to police brutality.

The school closure in the three states came on Tuesday about 24 hours after Lagos State Government had ordered all schools to shut down indefinitely over fears that the #EndSARS protests might turn violent.

In Ondo, a statement by the state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, copied from his verified Twitter account, stated, “I have directed that all schools that resumed on Monday 19th October 2020 are closed for the meantime from tomorrow 21st October 2020 because of the engulfing nationwide protest and the need to ensure safety of our students and staff.

Similarly, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, on Tuesday, ordered the closure of all schools in the state, till the end of the week.

In a state broadcast, Makinde said the directive stemmed from the fact that thugs and hoodlums had taken advantage of #EndSARS protests to perpetrate uncivil acts and harass innocent citizens.

The governor also said members of the state Joint Security Task Force, known as Operation Burst, had been deployed in various hotspots in Ibadan to restore normalcy.

Ekiti State Government also ordered immediate closure of all private and public schools following continued #EndSARS protests across the state.

The State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Dr Kofoworola Aderiye, stated this in a statement issued on Tuesday in Ado-Ekiti by the Chief Information Officer in the ministry, Abimbola Dada.

He said the decision was to safeguard the lives of pupils, students, teachers and other personnel in the schools.

”It is also to accommodate difficulty being encountered by those finding it difficult to get to their respective schools,” he said.

School activities, Aderiye added, would resume on October 26.