Police Arrest, Quiz 19 OAU Students Over Protests, VC Narrates Ordeal
NINETEEN students of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife have been arrested by the police following a protest last Wednesday over the alleged refusal by the authorities to re-instate the eight union leaders expelled from the institution. The students also had, as part of their grievances, the non-release of their last semester results and non-payment of staff salaries for three months which led to the refusal of lecturers to release their results.
The students then boycotted lectures and barricaded the entrance to the university. They allegedly held the vice chancellor and the Dean, Student Affairs hostage and assaulted them.
But the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, when contacted, immediately directed the Commissioner of Police, Osun State, to mobilise anti-riot policemen to the campus and ensure that the captives were rescued without any harm to them.
The anti-riot men responded promptly and rescued the two senior academic officers. The students were later dispersed peaceably while the barricades they had put at the entrance to the university were removed.
The University has been closed while a team of anti-riot policemen has been stationed at the university to prevent further disturbance of the peace.
Narrating his ordeal in the hands of the students, the OAU vice-chancellor Professor R. O. A. Makanjuola said but for the prompt intervention by the police, his life would have been endangered.
Makanjuola, who was at the Louis Edet office of the Inspector General of Police to thank him for the police intervention said the students had locked him up in his office and assaulted him.
But the IG yesterday at the Louis Edet House, Abuja, welcomed the students of the Police Secondary School who had participated in the just concluded Inter-school Debate Quiz Competition organised by the Defence and Police Officers Wives Association (DEPOWA).
All secondary schools of the Army, Navy, Airforce and the Police had keenly contested in the debate and quiz competition in which the Police Secondary school, Calabar, came second in the quiz and Police Secondary School, Minna, also came second in the debate.
The Police Secondary School, Minna was also voted the best-behaved school among all others.
Also, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Senator David Mark has assured of the speedy passage of the Police Trust Fund Bill by the National Assembly, with a view to eliminating the problem of inadequate funding in the force.
Going by the assurance on Thursday during the Committee's visit to Kogi State Police Command as part of its oversight function, Senator Mark commended police officers for their "diligence and commitment to duty in the face of inadequate logistics and poor accommodation facilities" also charged them to shun all vices and always exhibit high sense of professionalism.
He also commended them "for his dedication and commitment to seeing that the force's traditional roles are fully and satisfactorily performed."
