The governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Kwara State in the 2011 elections, Mohammed Dele Belgore, has said the government ought to apologise to thousands of potential beneficiaries of his truncated free holiday coaching, rather than give "lame and contradictory excuses."

Belgore, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), insisted that permission was sought and obtained from the head teachers before the scheme began, contrary to what he called "contradictory and laughable excuses by the government."

The government last week ordered government-owned schools to disallow in their premises, the free holiday classes sponsored by Belgore on the grounds that he did not secure permission to use the facilities.

But a statement by Belgore’s media aide, Rafiu Ajakaye, alleged that government lied and was only giving face-saving and contradictory excuses.

He said the programme would continue at private facilities if government disallowed the use of public-owned facilities.

The statement reads: "We cannot but laugh at the puerile excuses the Kwara State Government is giving for stopping an effort geared towards improving the educational standard of our youths.

"Rather than apologise to the people of Kwara for such shameful conduct, the government has continued to give lame, yet fallacious and contradictory excuses that we did not comply with the laid-down rules, which incidentally and laughably too were just concocted after the incident to justify the shameful behaviour.

"While the governor’s spokesman Muhyideen Akorede said we ought to pass through the Ministry of Education and not the head teachers, the Ministry of Education said anybody willing to use schools should apply through the head teachers. For the record, we wrote to the head teachers of the schools and got their approval to use the facilities. Permissions were sought and received.

"The action of the government contradicts the universal human rights that make dissemination of useful knowledge a fundamental right of human beings. It is a shame that Kwara State Government, which has failed over the years to equip the people with sound education, is bent on frustrating citizens who see education as the only true empowerment and are working in that direction.

"This government is committing a grave error if it thinks that this action will deter us from reaching out to every Kwaran, irrespective of political affiliations, who desires assistance in the area of human capital development."