Na wa oooo......No fewer than six students were injured during a clash among
some students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, on
Sunday evening.
While some of the eyewitnesses described
the fight as a power tussle between students who were loyal to the
President of the Student Union, Ibikunle Isaac, and those of the
Vice-President, Oladejo Olufunmi, others described it as a cult attack.
They all, however, agreed that the clash
was an aftermath of President Goodluck Jonathan’s visit to the
institution.
It was learnt that the Education Rights
Campaign members had just concluded a meeting at the Students’ Union
Building when the fight broke out.
Among those involved in the fight were
some union executive members, suspended students of the university,
members of the Security Committee of the SU and ERC members.
Some of the students, who suffered
varying degrees of injuries, were rushed to nearby hospitals for
treatment.
One of them, Tedy, was allegedly stabbed
with a pointed object suspected to be a screw driver, while another
student, David, was dealt a matchete cut on his head.
It was gathered that the door to the SU
President Office, where some students hid, was broken while the
occupants were thoroughly beaten.
There are, however, two sides to the
cause of the fight.
While some of the students said it was
as a result of ideological differences, others inferred that it was
related to the protest held during Jonathan’s visit.
Jonathan, traditional rulers and some
politicians were at the OAU for a conference, where Jonathan was
endorsed ahead of the 2015 polls.
The campus fracas took a dangerous
dimension when students of the school engaged one another at the school
gate with weapons.
Chief Security Officer of the
university, Mr. Paul Ogidi, said there was no cult attack in the
institution.
“It is true that our students fought.
There was no cult attack on our campus. We did not witness any attack,
but a fight among our students,” he said.
But the Vice-President of the Students
Union, Funmi Oladejo, insisted that what happened on the campus could be
likened to 1999 cult attack that claimed the lives of students.
She denied the fight as being factional,
but hinted that the controversy that surrounded the presence of
Jonathan on the university campus last Friday contributed to the cause
of the fight.
She said, “I was to have a meeting at
the SUB yesterday (Sunday) around 6pm. On getting there, I met a
student, Sanyaolu Oluwajuwon, inside the gutter, where he had been
seriously beaten and I wondered what happened. After a while, the
injured students went to show the injury to others and that enraged many
students.
“Meanwhile, what started the fight, I
heard, was that ERC were having their meeting when the President and the
PRO passed through the place and saw them. He then called his boys to
come, saying some people were having an opposition meeting at the SUB.
“After beating them up, they ran away
except Teddy that waited. We later realised that those that ran to town
went to hire cult members, who came with machetes. We eventually
caught four of them. Two were students and two were non-students.”
When asked if the fight was connected to
Jonathan’s visit, she responded, “As far as I am concerned, that is to
mess up the whole issue. They want to make it a partisan stuff and that
is out of sense. Our unionism is known to be independent and
non-partisan. So, the case of Jonathan’s visit was sardonic. They
(Ibikunle’s faction) wanted to pay back the opposition that greeted
Jonathan’s visit.”
It was learnt that the two of the
arrested people involved in the fight were taken by students to the
Awolowo Hall of the university, while the security officials took
another two students involved in the fight.
The President of the SU, Isaac Ibikunle,
told our correspondent that none of his loyalists were cult members.
He promised to call back to give his
“full reaction” after a meeting expected to be held between members of
the executive and the parliament on Monday
The Public Relations Officer of the
union, Oludare Bamidele, said, “It remains a sardonic issue that
suspended students are beating legitimate students on OAU campus right
now. Is this intellectual struggle? The act of dragging a security
official to be beaten is an affront to law and arrival of the hobbesian
state of nature.”
Osun State Police Public Relations
Officer, Mrs. Sade Odoro, said those involved in the fight were not
cultists.
She said, “OAU students truly fought and
they were taken to the police station. The police counselled and
released them after a while.”
Public Relations Officer of OAU, Mr.
Biodun Olarewaju, confirmed that the students fought over Jonathan’s
visit to the institution.
He said, “There was no cult invasion in
OAU. Our campus is too fortified for that to occur. Our security go on
regular patrol and we are in collaboration with external security
forces.
“What happened was just a fight between
two groups of students.
“Some believe that it was wrong for
another to take picture and welcome the President, Jonathan, while
others believe is not, especially when it is done without their consent.
“It is just a friendly fight. All that
happened was that a group felt they were not carried along.”
