Police and University Authorities Trying to Cover up
the Perpetrators of the Violence
* ERC Demands Arrest and Prosecution of the
Perpetrators * For an Independent and
Democratic Commission of Inquiry
Press Statement
Since
Sunday 30 November 2014 when Pro-Goodluck Jonathan Students' Union leaders
viciously attacked members of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) and radical
student activists for daring to protest against President Jonathan during his
political campaign visit to the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) last Friday
(28 November 2014), subterranean moves are being made by the University
authorities and the Osun State Police command to cover up the violence and
allow the perpetrators go scot free.
This is
combined with lies and distortions to belittle the enormity of the violent
attack and present the whole crisis as a mere "fight" among students
whereas it is nothing but a premeditated assault carried out by a wing of the
Students Union leadership under the patronage of the management. It is was
meant to obliterate the radical section of the studentry who all along had been
critical of the University's undemocratic and anti-student policies and are
also active in struggles against the anti-poor policies of government.
Instead of
doing its work of protecting the lives and property of the citizenry, in this
matter the police has decided to be partisan by protecting the assailants while
doing nothing to dispense justice to the victims of an unprovoked assault.
For
instance on Sunday night, Police "arrested" one Akuma Raphael
(Dbusta) who macheted Adeniyi David on the head. However to our chagrin, barely
24 hours later he was released by the Police without conducting any
investigation or visiting the hospital to see his victim who lay in critical
condition with his heAad cut deeply by a machete and to obtain his statement.
Meanwhile when questioned by reporters over the incident, the Osun State Police
Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Sade Odoro nonchalantly replied "OAU
students truly fought and they were taken to the Police station. The police
counselled them and released them after a while"(Punch newspaper, 2nd
December 2014).
Considering
the above statement, we ask: is this professionalism being displayed by the
police or base disregard for the rule of law and brazen partisanship? We demand
that the police mention the number of students allegedly arrested and
counselled. We know with full authority that only one student, Akuma Raphael
(Dbusta) was arrested and later released. Since the police has acknowledged
that "OAU students truly fought", did the police reach out to the
other party and obtain their statement before releasing the assailant in their
custody? Did the police visit the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital, a stone throw
away, to see the victims of the attack, particularly Adeniyi David, who was
macheted by the assailant in their custody before releasing him? Did they even
obtain a statement from Adeniyi David to verify the culpability or otherwise of
the student in their custody or on what rational basis was the release of Akuma
Raphael (Dbusta) contrived? We raise all these questions because the already
battered image of the police is again on the line in this matter.
In the
same vein, the University's Public Relation Officer, Mr. Biodun Olanrewaju when
interviewed acknowledged that the attack was connected to President Jonathan's
visit but then added in a dismissive tone "it is just a friendly fight.
All that happened was that a group of felt they were not carried along"
(Punch newspaper, 2nd December 2014). This rather ridiculous comment again
reinforces our belief that those who carried out this dastardly attack did not
act on their own volition but have the support and blessing of the management
and government. Otherwise how can a vicious attack which saw the free usage of
machetes, sticks and knives and left over 6 students injured with one in
critical conditions at the hospital be described as "a friendly
fight"? What sort of friends fight in this way? The University authorities
are dragging the image and reputation of this noble institution in the mud and
it is high time the Alumni and members of the public called it to order.
The ERC
has posed all these questions because once again the history of how the
authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University and the Police habitually
encourages cult-like attacks on student activists and afterwards cover up the
perpetrators such that they become emboldened to come back to unleash more
deadly attacks is being repeated before our very eyes. In March 1999, the
Students Union led mass of students of the same University to apprehend a group
of cultists allegedly of the black axe confraternity with dangerous arms
including AK 47 with some round of ammunition and handed them over to the
University security who in turn transferred them over to the police for
investigation and prosecution. The Vice Chancellor of the University then was
Professor Wale Omole. The cult members were wards of rich and powerful in
society and later known as cohorts of some management staff. They were
arraigned at the Magistrate Court in Ife. However the University
authorities refused to produce witnesses in court and the Magistrate suspected
to have been compromised did not only discharge and acquit them but also
ordered destruction of the cache of weaponry found on them. The university had
been closed down over a protest for reinstatement of politically victimized
student activists when the matter came up in court. No attempt was made to
reach out to student leaders by the management. These same cult members started
reappearing in the University when the school was re-opened in June 1999 and
were allowed to go about their academic activities by the University
authorities even while suspended student activists were barred from the campus.
On 10 July 1999, these same elements with other members of the Black axe confraternity
launched a deadly attack on the campus killing in cold blood five leaders of
the Students Union including the Secretary General, late Yemi Iwilade Afrika
who had led students to apprehend them in March.
The ERC is
resolute and shall not waver until justice is not only done in this matter but
seen to have been done. We accuse the Police of unprofessionalism, base
partisanship and compromise in dispense of justice. The attack is not
"just a friendly fight", it is a premeditated assault on these who had
the temerity to protest against President Jonathan. We demand the arrest and
diligent prosecution of all the perpetrators of this deadly attack who have
already been identified to the police and university authority.
The ERC
also demands the setting up of an independent commission of inquiry
democratically constituted by representatives of the Students Union, staff
Unions, civil society organisations and human right groups, lawyers and other
interested members of the public to investigate the remote and immediate causes
of the violence, identify the perpetrators and their sponsors and to also make
findings about the repeated cases of victimisation of students, anti-student
policies and interference of University management in the affairs of the Students
Union all of which constitutes the background to the current crisis. We also
demand the reversal of the 300% fee hike, recall of nine (9) victimized
activists and a halt to management's habitual interference in the union.
We shall
continue, despite attempts by the University authorities and police to cover
the real reason for the attack, to show that this is a premeditated attack on
the right to protest. Dissent is a fundamental right in every democracy.
Working masses, students and youth of Nigeria did not submit this right even
under the dark clouds of military absolutism, we do not intend to do this now.
The truth
is that during the political event attended by President Jonathan, the
President of the Students Union and some other pro-government members of the
union leadership in alliance with the National Association of Nigerian Students
(NANS) went to welcome him. This was in spite of his government anti-poor
education policies which led to over 300% increment of fees this session and
indefinite suspension of eight (8)
student activists who played leading roles in the struggle against the fees.
However,
the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) in alliance with the radical wing of the
Students Union leadership led by the Vice President and the Clerk decided to
organise a protest to highlight the rejection of the regime's anti-poor
education policies as well as raise demands for reversal of the hiked fees,
recall of victimised student leaders and proper funding of education. However
the pro-Jonathan wing of the Students Union and their allies in NANS embittered
by the success of the protest decided to launch a violent attack which left
more than six (6) of our members sustaining varying degree of injury with one,
Adeniyi David, sustaining deep machete cut on the head.
We were
joined by students many of whom were highly enraged by the hardship the
stoppage of movement of commercial buses into the campus as a result of the
President's presence for a sheer political event had caused them especially
that they were in the middle of the first Semester examinations. Many students
had to trek a long distance from the University gate to the campus. The
markets, butteries and restaurants in the University were closed causing
further hardship. The deafening noise of drummers, party members reverie and
all that caused immeasurable discomfort to students preparing for their
examinations in the reading rooms and lecture theatres nearby. It was this
annoyance felt by majority of students at the disturbance of their academics in
order to create space for what is nothing but a political event that
contributed to the mood of anger which greeted President Jonathan and other
anti-poor members of the ruling elite on his entourage.
Hassan
Taiwo Soweto Michael Ogundele
National Coordinator National Secretary
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