Press statement
BRUTALISATION AND UNJUST DISMISSAL OF MISS OLADOKUN FOLASHADE
LESHI BY OP-MESA AND AUTHORITIES OF ABRAHAM ADESANYA POLYTECHNIC
A Cry for Justice
We hereby demand Folashade’s immediate recall with adequate
compensation for her travails, the identification, arrest and trial of the
operatives of OP-MESA that brutalized her as well as the DPO of Topan Police
station where she was detained even while bleeding from injuries sustained at the
hands of OP-MESA operatives. We also demand the sack and trial of Prof. Jumoke
Bilesanmi Awoderu and Miss Afolashade Jokotagba, respectively the Rector and
DSA of the Abraham Adesanya Polytechnic for their ignoble roles in the entire
saga.
On 18 April 2016, Folashade had gone to pay the mandatory N5000
the school had imposed as damages after a students’ protest allegedly led to
destruction of the schools properties. But she, together with other students of
AAP, was prevented from entering the school
by OP-MESA operatives stationed at the main entrance by the management. She had paid her school fees since December
2015. However, payment of the said extortionate sum of N5000 had now been made
the sole criterion for writing the semester’s examination regardless of whether
or not she was part of the protest that led to the alleged destructions. The
examination was to start on 18 April so Folashade and other students who had
labored to raise the sum of N5000 went to the school entrance hoping the
authorities would be kind enough to collect the money from them and allow them
seat for the examinations. But to their amazement, they met a throng of armed
operatives of OPMESA at the gate. Unrelenting, they decided to stay further at
the gate, some standing, some seating, in the scorching sun, hoping that help would
come.
Some hours later, the Rector drove in, had a few words with the
security operatives and all hell broke loose. Folashade did not see them
coming. For hours she had sat on a pavement by the school gate, lost in thought
and dehydrated by the scorching sun. All she heard was a thundering voice:
“you, what are you doing here? Go home”. She turned and in a pleading voice tried
to explain why she could not go home and the implications of missing the exams.
The next thing, one of the soldiers asked: “Are you stupid?” Folashade retorted
that she was not stupid and as a woman, she expected a more civil treatment
from the soldiers. Well those few harmless words were her undoing. Livid with
anger that a student, and a woman, could bandy words with them, the soldiers
descended on Folashade punching and beating her. They threatened to shoot her. They
whipped her with an electric wire that tore through her cloth and the skin
beneath. They ripped her cloth exposing her body in the process. All these
happened in front of the gate of the Abaraham Adesanya Polytechnic after the Rector
exchanged some words with the security operatives. Not done yet, she was
bundled into a Hilux bus and driven to the Rector’s office to write a
statement. By this time, she was bleeding from the gaping wounds on her body.
After writing the statement, the DSA put her in a car and drove her, not to the
nearest hospital, but to Topan police station where she was locked up in a
cell. She was detained in a dirty cell, without medical treatment of any kind,
from 12noon till 10:15pm when she was released on bail after a traditional
ruler, Oba Beje Rokun of Oke-Agbo, intervened.
As soon as Folashade got her freedom, she started seeking redress.
The issue was published on social media by some sympathetic friends and online
blogs and her lawyer also wrote the polytechnic on her behalf seeking justice. But
this was not the end of her travail. 3 months after, on 19 July 2016, Folashade
was dismissed by the Polytechnic for “insubordination/disobedience to
constituted authority”, “false accusation, defamation of character, writing of
false petition and peddling of false information about the Polytechnic
management”, “misconduct”, “assault” and “failure to follow protocol in
channeling/ seeking redress”. These are not only laughable allegations. They
also show how desperate the polytechnic management is to punish Folashade who
is a victim of assault, battery, harassment and unlawful detention.
No doubt, injustice reigns supreme in the banana republic called
Nigeria and the motley crew of law enforcement and state security forces have
been responsible for far more brutalization of Nigerians amidst other
blood-cuddling violations. In fact, Folashade’s case is coming at a period when
a number of students of higher institutions have been maimed and killed in
different circumstances on some campuses this year by the police and other
security forces. But for being a woman, Folashade’s brutalization highlight the
total disregard for women and gender rights by security forces especially the
police and the army who have been known to even rape female detainees in the
cells.
The ERC is bent on seeking justice on this case in order to deter
future violations. We therefore urge students unions, staff unions, other trade
unions, civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations, women and
gender-based organizations, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to add
their voices to this issue until justice is seen to have been done in this
matter not only to bring respite to Folashade but as a deterrent against such
treatment of ordinary citizens by trigger happy security forces.
We call on the Ogun state government to intervene in this matter. We
demand the demilitarization of campuses through the withdrawal of security
forces, both uniformed and plainclothes, from campuses and a halt to the use of
guns, tear gas and other weapons capable of causing bodily harm and death by
police and other security forces to intervene in students’ gatherings and
protests. Students are not criminals. Unfortunately, the conduct, method and
reaction of the police towards students and other categories of young people
promote a stigma of criminality as a definition of this segment of the nation’s
population. We reject this and demand a total reform of the police and the army
through the democratization of these forces so that rank and file officers can
have the democratic right to form a union and therefore the right to disobey
commands and orders to commit human right violations.
Hassan Taiwo Soweto Michael Ogundele
National Coordinator (07033697259) National Secretary
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