OAU suspends 4 students over criminal activities, protest

THE authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, on Friday announced the suspension of four students of the institution for criminal activities, breach of the code of conduct for the university community and violent violation of their matriculation oath.

The suspended students are Omole Ibukun Ayodele, with registration number Cve/ 2011/ 042 of the Department of Civil Engineering; Jacob, Tosin Grace, with registration number: Law/ 2012/ 153 of the Faculty of Law; Udeh, John with registration number Ase/ 2015/ 362 of the Department of Arts and Social Sciences and Oluwalade, Babatunde with registration number: Egl/ 2014/ 431 of the Department of English.

According to a press release signed by the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the institution, Mr Abiodun Olarewaju, the students led some other persons in protest and violently disrupted academic and extra-curricular activities of the University by forcefully chasing other students out of the lecture halls under the guise of demonstrating against an alleged unsatisfactory power supply to the campus.

The release also added that the students, in conjunction with other persons, vandalised commercial transport vehicles of the members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Ile-Ife, and drove two other vehicles and a Cabstar van, fully loaded with their groups, to More Police Station where other students, who were being interrogated by the police, were forcefully released by their group.

It reads in part, “while the criminal aspect of the students conduct has been referred to the Police for appropriate action, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede, upon careful review of the facts and circumstances of the matter, has come to the inevitable conclusion that the students involved be suspended from the university in the interim, pending police investigation and until such time the situation should have been reviewed and resolved.

“The concerned students have been ordered to vacate the campus and are accordingly forbidden to participate in any activity of the university, either within or outside the campus.”

“The university management has, therefore, advised law-abiding students to concentrate on their studies and shun any act or utterance that is capable of elongating the academic calendar beyond the stipulated period,” the release added.