FUNAAB lays foundation for community police station •Gets new registrar

THE acting vice chancellor, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State, Professor Ololade Enikuomehin, was recently joined by the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Mr Ahmed Illyasu, to lay the foundation stone for the FUNAAB Adjoining Communities Police Station.

According to a statement by the Head, Directorate of Public Relations, FUNAAB, the facility is meant to end cases of theft and burglary within the precincts of the university campus.

Speaking at the venue, located at the Harmony Estate, near the university main gate, Professor Enikuomehin noted that FUNAAB students constitute the largest number of individuals inhabiting the adjoining communities.

He said the university was aware that the economic value of the community was hinged on the presence of the students, saying that the university would do all it could to ensure that they are seen in positive light within the neighbourhood.

Professor Enikuomehin said, “I would like to plead that if you have issues with them (students), rather than going to the extreme, please, get across to us. We won’t indulge them. We have rules and regulations that are even guiding off-campus accommodation.

“We now have a policy that gives us the right to challenge and penalise students that misbehave even here, because they are still our students.”

Earlier, the Commissioner of Police, Mr Illyasu, had underscored the importance of community policing, adding that it was in the best interest of police officers to associate or partner with groups so as to know what was happening in their environment.

“Today, we are celebrating a new phase in policing and what we have achieved under my leadership. We will continue to partner with each and every citizen to push, in one accord, what we call ‘micro-policing’,” he said.

Commenting on the relationship between police officers and FUNAAB students, Mr IIlyasu stated that the police headquarters had been networking with the students to foster mutual cooperation, and that the (police) headquarters would continue to give support, even after the inauguration.

The dean of Students’ Affairs, Professor Adeniyi Olayanju, also announced that the university’s senate had constituted a committee to formulate relevant policy for off-campus students which he said had two main purposes: security and well as the welfare of all off-campus students.