AGGRIEVED students of the University of Abuja on Monday blocked the highway leading to the Federal Capital City to protest the sudden death of their colleague, Miss Simi Bisi, a 200 Level student.
The students staged a demonstration at the entrance gate of the main campus which resulted in the disruption of the flow of traffic on the Abuja-Gwagwalada highway for hours.
This followed the death of Miss Simi Bisi, a 200 Level student of the Department of History and Diplomatic Studies, who was said to have been knocked down by a moving vehicle while attempting to escape from the hands of hoodlums that had accosted her shortly after alighting from a commercial vehicle to Abuja city center on Sunday night.
President, Students Union Government (SUG) University of Abuja, Abdullazeez Ajiboye, who led the protest blamed the death of their colleague on the inability of the management of the institution to provide security for them.
He said they would not continue to lose the precious lives of their fellow students on the account of insecurity in the school.
They insisted that the management of the university must overhaul the security system in the school in other to secure the lives and properties of the students.
They called on the management of the institution to put speed breakers, street lights, Police post, and rehabilitation of student hostels.
The angry students also called for the immediate sack of the Chief Security Officer of the school who they accused of incompetence.
The students said that Sunday night accident was the seventh one, adding that the sudden death of their colleagues was no longer acceptable to them. They called on the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Micheal Adikwu and management to take concrete action to secure the lives of the students.
The SUG President, who spoke on behalf of the protesting students said: “We have complained severally on criminal activities of hooligans that have been terrorizing the University community at night hours. The hoodlums specialized in dispossessing the students, mostly females, of their personal belongings.
“Under the cover of darkness, they would strike students who might be returning from lectures or other social activities at night hours, to dispossess them of their belongings or possibly rape them.
“This was the case of the deceased student. She was confronted by some hoodlums in 2016 same purpose of attack. In the process of running for her dear life, she ran into oncoming vehicle.
“Immediately after the accident, she was taken to the student clinic because she was still alive then, but clinic officials insisted on the presentation of her card which wasn’t available as at then. That was how they abandoned her there till she painfully died.
“Shamefully, the only nurse in the ill equipped school clinic certified her dead on arrival without any medical examination.”
Calm was later restored after the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Umale Adikwu, addressed the irate students at the main gate persuading them to vacate the highway with an assurance that the University Management would address immediately some of their demands which included putting in place security measures that would guarantee safety of students on the highway.
He explained that the University would liaise with the relevant federal authorities so that speed-breakers could be constructed at strategic points to the University gate on the highway funded by the University and that similar approach would be made to the Nigerian Police authorities for a permanent Police patrol presence by the overhead bridge especially at night.
The Vice-Chancellor who also addressed the press on the incident said that the Ajiboye Okoye-Kola led Students Union (SUG) and the University Management had agreed to constitute a joint committee to monitor student facilities with a view to nib in the bud any frictions that might arise as a result of failures of welfare and other services to students.
Meanwhile, Prof. Adikwu, expressed his sympathy to the family of the late Bisi. Adikwu said he was saddened that such avoidable loss of life had continued to occur despite security measures put in place by the management of the school.
He promised to meet with other management staff of the school in order to discuss ways that they could improve on the security, if possible, overhaul the security architecture of the school to prevent further occurrence.
Adikwu expressed shock on hearing that the deceased student was denied medical attention by health officers in the school clinic because she couldn’t produce her medical card at that moment.
He promised to take up the matter with the clinic through the school management so that such ugly incident never repeated itself.
“That information is not available to me yet but I will summon a management meeting so that we can address such issues and other sundry matters. It was very bad of the clinic management if they really denied the deceased student medical attention on such flimsy excuses.
“Life is precious and should be the primary responsibility of any health officers to save life especially in the case of any accident, before placing any other request either monetary or otherwise,” Prof. Adikwu said.
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