FUOYE killings: NANS seeks compensation for victims, families

The leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students on Thursday urged the Ekiti State Government to pay compensation to victims and families of the deceased students of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti during recent police attack.

The student’s body has also urged the Governor of Ekiti State to immediately constitute a judicial commission of inquiry into the incident that led to the death of two students and others sustaining various degrees of injuries.

President of NANS, Comrade Danielson Akpan, who addressed a news conference in Abuja on the report of his findings during his visit to the state over the unfortunate incident, said the students have held the wife of the Ekiti State Governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi responsible for the avoidable death of the innocent students.

He gave the Ekiti State Government and the wife of the governor, up to October 10, 2019, to meet certain demands of the students or face legal action to be instituted by NANS.

Some of the demands of the students are: “That all the medical bills of the survivors be paid with N20 million each as compensation.

“That beyond condolence visits to the families of Dada and Okonofua, practical effort should be made by the state government to deliberately assuage the grieving families through employment into the state civil service at least 2 members of each of the families of the deceased students deemed employable.

“Immortalisation of the slain students and immediate release of CTU officers attached to the wife of the Ekiti state Governor for prosecution in accordance with the laws.

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“That an apology letter is written by Erelu Bisi Fayemi published in at least 5 national dailies, 3 television stations with wide coverage and 12 radio stations spread across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria and 20 online news media among others.

He said from the investigation done by a delegation of NANS to Ekiti led by him, the President, amply revealed that officers of Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) attached to the convey of the wife of the Ekiti State Governor, killed the two students, Kehinde Dada and Joseph Okonofua.

He said: “Both Kehinde Dada and Joseph Okonofua fell by CTU officers attached to Bisi Fayemi have been buried in Usi-Ekiti, Ekiti State, and Ewu, Edo State respectively without autopsy conducted on them.

“The CTU officers employed brute force on armed-less students on peaceful protest, shooting sporadically different directions in a bid to whisking away the wife of the governor who was obviously under no threat whatsoever.

“During the shooting, four students were fired. While Dada died on the spot, Okonofua died in the hospital after an unsuccessful attempt to save his life. Several others were injured with some still undergoing treatment in hospital.

Akpan, said was pained by the death of the students, especially when the students were on a peaceful protest on the 9th of September, 2019, against Benin Electricity Distribution Company in charge of the area over poor power supply.

The NANS President also urged the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to without delay reconstitute the police/students relations committee which could interface and nip in the bud the incessant killing of innocent Nigerian students by trigger happy police officers and to create student-friendly police.

Akpan further tasked the Ekiti State Government to address the problem of poor electricity supply to tertiary institutions in the state, especially FUOYE, adding that transformers should be urgently acquired for the communities hosting the Federal University.