Osun State Set to Demolish Public School for New Shop Rite Complex

Alumni, parents and other education stakeholders in Osun State have begun to remove items they donated to Fakunle Comprehensive High School in Oshogbo, following allegations Governor Rauf Aregbesola plans to demolish the school and replace it with a “Shop Rite” mall.

According to Sahara Reporters, there has been a long battle between parents, alumnus, students and the Aregbesola administration over the plan, saying that the governor is serving the interests of his political god-father, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to provide prime space for him to extend Shop Rite, a business he is said to own, to Oshogbo.

The State Government through the ministry of education sent out transfer letters to teachers of the school and released a list by which it distributed the students of Fakunle High School to other schools. By the new list, some of the students now have to cover more distances to learn.

An official at the education department refused to comment on the allegation that the school would be converted to a shopping mall, but confirmed that teachers were being posted across schools in the state in line with a “reclassification of schools” model by the government. The students have also been planned for distribution to other schools.

One teacher told Sahara reporters that the new reform means there are now only three ‘High Schools’ in the entire Oshogbo, and only one in Ede, another town in Osun State.

Fakunle High School was established by Reverend Pa. Ade Fakunle in 1956, and has produced persons of high status in the State. In 1975, the Osun State Government took the school over from the missionaries.