ABEOKUTA — Unconfirmed reports have it that four students of
the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State might have lost
their lives, Monday, as hundreds of them went on the rampage, protesting
against the barring of unregistered students from participating in
the harmattan examination, which should have started Monday.
The students used two of the student union government buses to
barricade the road leading to the entrance of the institution,
preventing staff and other students from gaining entry into the main
campus.
Police deny killing 4 students
The Police in the state, however, denied the alleged killing of four students in the protest, saying, only 10 were arrested.
The Assistant Police Commissioner in charge of Operations, Mr.
Mohammad Abdulkadri, confirmed that 10 suspected rioters had been
arrested and two buses seized from them with no casualty.
Vanguard gathered that the students rejected the appeal by Abdulkadri
and Ijebu Area Commander, Usman Alabi, to shelve the planned action and
allow movement in and outside the main campus.
The situation caused a stampede at the main gate as police fired tear gas to disperse the protesting students.
It would be recalled that the school authority, Sunday, through a
statement from the state government, directed all bonafide students of
the institution’s to regularize their studentship with immediate effect.
VC reacts
Speaking with newsmen, the institution’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor
Saburi Adesanya, said the regularization was in line with the Federal
Government’s directive through the National Universities Commission,
NUC, requesting all universities to provide a comprehensive students‘
audit within the next six weeks.
Adesanya added that the only way to achieve this was to compile the
list of bonafide students who had been dully registered through payment
of school fees.
He said: “The protesting students were those who failed to meet the
deadline of Friday, May 17 to comply with the instruction before the
commencement of 500 level Law students.
“The deadline has before now shifted for more than three times to
allow them complete their registration which some of them refuse to do.”
…SUG leader too
Reacting on behalf of the Students Union Government, Vice President
of the Union OOU, Ajayi Oyindamola, said they had been on the struggle
with the institution for extension of the deadline for the past three
months.
She explained that the students acknowledged the step of the
institution over the regularization issue, but added that the closure of
the school portal for payment and generation of receipt made things
difficult for them.
Oyindamola further claimed that the SUG had pleaded on behalf of
the affected students who have not paid their school fees for 2010/2011,
2011/2012,and 2012/2013 academic sessions for more extension due to
the present economic situation of the country which did not go well with
the school management.
She confirmed that some of the students hade spent four, five, six
years and more in the institution as a result of their inability to pay
the outrageous school fees.
She said: “It’s not right for students not to register for a particular
session but most of them fend for the school fees themselves and even
Ogun State government makes things difficult by not paying us bursary
allowance.”
The SUG leader, however, said teargas canisters were fired by the
police to disperse the protesters, adding that death or injury of any of
them could not be ascertained as the police did not fire gun shots at
any student.
The students who were sent away from the scene of the protest
returned to the Ago-Iwoye township to regroup and made bone fires along
the streets, disrupting vehicular movements of other law-abiding
residents of the community
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