When undergraduate student Nice Linus joined two others to resist the University of Ibadan (UI) fee hike in 2024, she surely knew she could be getting into a confrontation with the school’s management.
Ayodele Aduwo, one of the other two students, at least knew certainly that the authorities could rewrite his graduation schedule. His case was already tabled before the school’s Student Disciplinary Council (SDC).
“The case is still there. But with the way the thing works… When my set is graduating, we would not be going anywhere,” Aduwo said after UI allowed the Oyo Police to arrest him.
BACKGROUND
In May 2024, Nice Linus, Ayodele Aduwo Gbadegesin Iyanuoluwa, both students of UI, together with Adeyeye Oluwafemi, who was not a student, protested the fee hike announced by the university management.
The protest took place on the day the UI Students Union executives were sworn in.
READ ALSO: UI Student Narrates How Oyo Police Tracked, Arrested Him for Role in School Fee Protests
Almost a year later, Linus herself emerged as a member of the UI Students Representative Council (UISRC) after the student elections that took place on March 1.
The UISRC is the highest student legislative body in UI.
On Wednesday, T.I Musa, UI Deputy Registrar, revoked Linus’ election as a member of the UISRC due to her pending SDC case bordering on the role she played in the protests. Musa disclosed this in a memo.
Musa said in the memo that Linus’ participation in the election was an ‘oversight’ because a ‘University regulation’ prevents students with pending student disciplinary cases from contesting any electoral position until all their cases have been resolved.
The deputy registrar did not state the specific law that debars Nice, and FIJ found in Section 26 (5) of the UI student union constitution that only students who have been found guilty of gross misconduct can be debarred from contesting a student union election.
On Friday, during the UISU inauguration and swearing-in, the UI security outfit codenamed ‘Abefele’ forcefully dragged Linus out of the UI Trenchard Hall. FIJ saw a video clip showing the incident.
“As far as we know, Nice was not sent any correspondence of the memorandum. She only saw it because the UISRC speaker sent it to her,” Aduwo explained.
Linus also corroborated Aduwo’s account that she was not aware of her election being revoked as a representative of the Obafemi Awolowo Hall until she needed to sign her oath of office form.
“When it was time to take my oath of office, I was told by the personnel handing over the form that she wasn’t authorised to give me the inauguration form, where I was to fill in my name and signature and submit later. I was advised to return to my seat, and I obliged,” Linus told FIJ.
“While returning to my seat, two security personnel came to stop me from going to take my seat with fellow honourables. As I tried to ascertain their stance and explain mine to them, I saw several other security men barricade me. I was then dragged out of the hall, through the stairs manhandled and assaulted.
UI Security Officials Whisking Linus Away
Aduwo added that his wristwatch was damaged in the process and others who tried to protect Linus were bruised.
READ ALSO: Oyo Police Take 2 Students Into Custody After UI Management Told Them to Go Home
While this was ongoing, campus journalists Olanshile Ogunrinu and Oluwasegun Akanni recorded the incident on their phones, but the Abefele unit forcefully seized their phones before whisking Akanni away.
UI Security Assaulting Ogunrinu for Recording
“When they were forcefully dragging students and assaulting them, I stood at Trenchard Hall observing. Then the deputy Registrar shouted, ‘He is recording’, after which three Abefele guys pinned me to the wall and forcefully collected my phone,” Akanni told FIJ.
Moment UI Security Slapped Akanni
“I was slapped and dragged to the Abefele unit. They took my details, but I couldn’t finish the statement when I was asked to return to Trenchard yesterday.”
When asked what the content of his statement was, Akanni said he wrote that he was a pressman and he was only making a video.
Our Stories
CBN Misuses Picture of Murdered Muslim Farmers to Depict Nigerian Christian Terror Victims
Oborevwori Condemned APC for ‘Bringing Poverty’ to Nigeria. He Joined Them Within 3 Years
EFCC Takes Jesam Michael, Whom FIJ Investigated, to Court Over $854,416 Investment Fraud
Air Peace Fails to Notify Passengers of NiMet Strike, Leaves Them Stranded in Rivers
Lagos Police Drag Man Off Street, Torture Him, Then Extort His N25,000 on Good Friday
Less Than 24 Hours After FIJ’s Story, Adron Homes Refunds Lagos Woman’s N525,000
Nigerians Slam Bayo Onanuga’s Insincere Defence of Presidential Villa’s N10b Solar Budget
N257b in Quiet Additions: What Presidency, NASS Didn’t Say About 2025 Budget
Adron Homes Fails to Process Lagos Woman’s N750,000 Refund After 5 Years of Failed Promises
VIDEO: Lagos CP Blames ‘Situation We Have in Nigeria’ for Mishandling Teen’s Arrest
Subscribe
Be the first to receive special investigative reports and features in your inbox.