Officials of the Lagos State Government and the 91-year-old widow and presumed owner of Metropolitan College, Isolo, Mrs. Roseline Ololo, have disagreed on the outcome of a crucial meeting held on Wednesday to resolve the contentious issue of handing over the school to her.
The meeting was summoned by the state Ministry of Justice to find solution to the 39-year-old tussle for the return of the college to the widow and first wife of the owner, Michael Ololo, now late. The octogenarian, her lawyer, Mr. Malcolm Omirhobo and about 50 protesters had, on Monday, stormed Governor Akinwunmi Ambode's office and the state Ministry of Education under a downpour, to demand the return of the 60-year-old college taken over by the government in 1975.
As stated by the widow's solicitor, the meeting, which was attended by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education; an official of the Ministry of Justice and Mrs. Ololo ended in a deadlock.
Omirhobo said the meeting deadlocked because of the failure of government’s representatives to accept salient facts of the issue and the relevant laws.
The lawyer, in a protest letter to Governor Ambode stated: “We were shocked to the marrow at the meeting, when your officials attended the meeting without their files on the subject matter.
“It is sad and heartbreaking that your representatives did not attend the meeting with the aim of resolving it, but rather, with the premeditated mind of making the meeting fail on arrival.”
But the Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry, Mr. Jide Lawal, in a statement, quoted Mrs. Ariyo as saying that the state government, in an effort to carry out due diligence, requested Mrs. Ololo to substantiate her claims to the ownership of the school by providing a letter of administration or the copy of the will of the former owner of the school, in order to fast track the process of returning the schools.
Ariyo said government’s position was informed by the need to ascertain the rightful status of Mrs. Ololo in the family, in view of the internal wrangling in the Ololo family, adding that the process of returning the school could only be concluded after the identification of the rightful owner of the college.