Jonathan’s visit: OAU students clash, six injured

No fewer than six students were injured during a clash between some students of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, on Sunday evening, Punch reports.

While some of the eyewitnesses described the fight as a power tussle between students, who are loyal to the President of the Student Union, Ibikunle Isaac, and those of Vice-President, Oladejo Olufunmi, others described it as a cult attack.

It was learnt that the Education Rights Campaign members had just concluded a meeting at the  SU building Television room, 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 the nearby hospitals for treatment.

One of them, Tedy, was allegedly pierced with a pointed object suspected to be a screw driver and another, David, was dealt a matchete cut on his head.

It was gathered that the door to the SU president’s office, where some students hid, was broken while the occupants were thoroughly beaten, leading to the injuries suffered by some of the students.

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 President Goodluck Jonathan’s visit.

Jonathan, traditional rulers and some politicians were at OAU for a supposed conference, where Jonathan was endorsed ahead of the 2015 polls.

The campus fracas took a dangerous dimension when students of the school engaged themselves 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 cults 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 cults attack that claimed the lives of students.

She‎ denied the fight as being factional but hinted that the controversy that surrounded the presence of President Goodluck Jonathan on the university campus last Friday contributed to the cause of the fight.

She said, “I was to have a meeting at 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 its meeting when the President and PRO passed through the place and saw them. He then called his boys to start coming that some people are having an opposition meeting at SUB and they all came to beat those on the ground.

“After beating them up, they ran away except Teddy that waited. We later realised that those that ran to town went to hire ‘cults’, who came with machetes.  ‎One of them (David) was even unconscious. 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 concern, 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 and we should be a check to bad government.”

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 Student Union, Isaac Ibikunle, told our correspondent that non 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 parliament today (Monday).

The Public Relations Officer of the union, Oludare Bamidele, wrote, “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 police station. The police counselled and released them after a while. There is no secret cult thing involved.”