Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti on Thursday ordered the immediate suspension of Dr Cecilia Adebayo, the Provost of the state-owned College of Health Sciences and Technology, Ijero-Ekiti.
The suspension was announced in a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti by Mr Yinka Oyebode, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor.
According to the statement, the suspension will be in force pending the outcome of investigation into the circumstances that led to the hospitalisation of no fewer than 100 students of the institution after a controversial fumigation.
The statement added that the suspension would be without prejudice to the outcome of a meeting of the college’s governing council slated for next week.
In the same vein, the governor ordered that officials of the Federal Fire Services, who carried out the fumigation, should report to their headquarters in Abuja.
Consequently, the governor had constituted a panel to investigate what the statement described as an unfortunate incident.
Members of the panel are: Dr Oyebanji Filani, the Commissioner for Health and Human Services as the Chairman and Dr Olabimpe Aderiye, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology.
Mr Isaac Okeowo, the Director, Special Duties, Cabinet Office, Government House, would serve as the Secretary to the panel, the statement added.
Others as members are: Princess Iyabo Fakunle-Okhiemen, the Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources and Prof. Bolaji Aluko, Director-General, Office of Transformation and Service Delivery (OTSD), Mr. Samuel Omoniyi, Director, State Fire Services; Prof. Isola Olomola and Chief Dupe Ogundipe.
According to the statement, the panel, which is to start work immediately, has only two weeks to carry out its investigations and report back to the governor directly.
The governor, who is the Visitor to the College, empathised with all the affected students.
He directed that their medical bills be taken over by the state government in all the hospitals they had been admitted for treatment.
Fayemi urged the students and parents to remain calm and desist from any further violent conduct capable of affecting the peace of the town and the state in general.
