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ASUU urge Ag IGP to unravel killers of UI Professor Ajewole

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ibadan branch, on Monday, urged the acting Inspector General of Police, Olukayode Egbetokun to, without delay, set up a high-powered investigating team of officers and crack detectives to fish out those behind Ajewole’s killing.

In his address at the congress, chairman, Professor Ayoola Akinwole, described as mind-boggling and unfortunate the fact that about a month after Opeyemi Ajewole, a professor of social and environmental forestry at the university was killed, the police is yet to announce the arrest of those behind the killing.

At a special congress held at the university, members of the ^University of Ibadan academic community said it was dissatisfied that little had been heard regarding progress in tracking down the killers, warning that the consequences of such was that criminals will be more emboldened in perpetrating criminality.

The ASUU said the call was expedient to prevent a scenario where Ajewole’s killing joins the list of unresolved killings and other criminalities, over the years.

The union, particularly tasked the new Oyo Commissioner of Police, Adebola Hamzat, to bear in mind that the killing occurred in his domain, and live up to his primary responsibility to guarantee the security of lives and properties in the state.

Akinwole’s address read, in parts: “It is unfortunate and mind-boggling that barely four weeks after the incident, security operatives have not yet apprehended the killers of Professor Ajewole.

“This speaks volumes about the state of the nation. The implication of this incident and the inability of security operatives to track down the killers of Professor Ajewole or provide clues and insights into the murder is a challenge to the government and the entire security apparatus of Nigeria because their primary responsibility is the security of lives and properties.

“This, if not achieved, will consequently result in more unaccounted crimes, considering that the criminals will become emboldened in their criminality because there is no deterrent.

“It will also lead to self-help by the citizens of the country, which, in turn, will lead to drifting into the state of nature, a condition of people before the emergence of any state or civil society, a situation in which human behaviours were generated and actuated by the primitive instinct of self-preservation.

“Today, the ASUU-UI, and indeed all men of goodwill are dissatisfied that up till now, the security operatives in Oyo State in particular and Nigeria in general, have not been able to unravel the identity of those deadly assailants.

“Our Union hereby call upon the good people of Nigeria to continue to demand accountability from the government in relation to the spate and series of death that have remained uninvestigated and/or unresolved nay, unaccounted for over the past decades.

“We therefore, seize this opportunity to urge Adebola Hamzat, the new commissioner of police in Oyo State and indeed the newly decorated Acting Inspector General of Police in Nigeria, Olukayode Egbetokun to without delay, set up a high-powered investigating team of officers and crack detectives to fish out the criminals from their hideout anywhere they may be, for the purpose of bringing them to justice.”

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