NANS Flays Hurried Closure Of OAU Over Student’s Death; Asks For VC’s Sack

By Ayodele Oni

Following what it described as a hurried closure of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, the National Association of Nigerian Students, (NANS) has berated the Vice Chancellor and called for his removal.

OAU was shut down on Friday following protests by the students as a result of the death of one of them, Adesina Omowumi Aishat.

Aishat, a Part 4 student of the Department of Foreign Languages reportedly died as a result of negligence by health workers at the University Health Centre.

A statement by the Public Relations Officer of the University, Abiodun Olarewaju, subsequently announced the immediate closure of the university and asked the students to vacate their hall of residence before 12 pm on Saturday.

The Management, also, put on hold the swearing-in of the newly elected Students’ Union officials, pending review of the situation.

“However, Management condemns in strong terms the continuous and uncontrolled protests by the students culminating in unbridled brigandage, blocking the Ife/Ibadan and Ife/Ede highways and other adjoining roads that could be used as alternative routes, and engaging in other acts that are detrimental to their health and the safety of the generality of the people.

“Therefore, having exhausted all necessary avenues to call the students to order and allow normalcy to return to the campus and its environs, the authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, have accordingly closed down the school until further notice. This is to forestall further breakdown of law and order.

“In view of this, all students are hereby directed to vacate their halls of residence and the campus latest by 12:00 noon on Saturday, October 2, 2021.

“Consequently, the swearing-in of the newly elected Students’ Union officials has been put on hold, pending a review of the situation. In the meantime, the University management has put in place the machinery to unravel the circumstances surrounding the immediate and remote cause(s) of the crisis.”

However, NANS Zone D, condemned the ‘reckless’ closure of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State by the Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede-led Management and demanded, as a matter of urgency and necessity, the re-opening of the institution for students to continue their examinations.

The NANS Zone D also threatened to call for the removal of the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede even as it disclosed that its Zonal leadership will relocate its secretariat to the University campus gate until the VC reverses the decision.

They also called on the students of the University and all Student Union bodies across the South West to mobilise in numbers for a showdown until the Management rescinds its decision, adding that it shall be calling for the removal of the University Vice-Chancellor at that spot and they shall be mobilised in their numbers.

NANS coordinator in the zone, Kowe Amos, and secretary, Giwa Temitope, in a statement, described the directive by the institution management to close down the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State as extremely infantile and primitive.

This is even as it demanded an immediate reversal of the decision by the management which it claimed was draconian, hasty and unnecessary.

“As an association, we find it appalling that the University management could go to the extent of twisting the narrative by saying that she was adequately treated. Meanwhile, reverse was the case.

“It is on good record that the helpless student was abandoned and was certified brought-in-dead at Seventh Day Hospital, Mayfair for treatment where she gave up the ghost.

“But the management in their characteristic manner had to lie that she was promptly treated of severe infection (which they could not even name). The fact that the management could not name the ‘severe infection’ is a testament to the fact that they lied.

“As against the content of the 4th paragraph of the circular that was issued by the University management, there was no attempt by the University Management “to call the students to order and allow normalcy to return to the campus and its environs.”