Students Accuse OAU Students' Affairs Dean Of High-handedness, Plan To Cause Religious Crisis
institution's Dean of Students' Affairs (DSA), Professor G.O Akinola, of high-
handedness and actions capable of sparking a religious crisis on campus. The
students, under the banner of Concerned Great Ife Students, made the
allegations in an open petition against Professor Akinola.
Jointly signed by Comrades Emman O. Emma, Sodunola Obafemi and Uzor, the
petition was copied to the university's Vice Chancellor, Registrar and the local
chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). In the petition,
the students alleged that on 30 April, the DSA issued an order barring fresh
students from entering the halls of residence with their parents. The order,
argued the students, lacked common sense.
"It requires just common sense to conclude that parents need to assist their
wards with their luggage and also know where their children will be residing.
Such order is ‘understandable’ in the face of the poor welfare and ridiculous
conditions the incoming students are subjected to, and the desperate act of the
Dean to cover up," the students stated.
While at Mozambique Hall, where she issued the order, she was alleged to have
descended on the leaders of the Muslim Students society of Nigeria (MSSN),
whom she stopped from welcoming and assisting new members on the pretext
of preventing indoctrination.
"Such an action from the Dean (who is supposed to harmonize all religious
interests on campus for the sake of peace), is an open declaration of religious
division among students," argued the aggrieved students.
They also claimed to have seen the DSA excoriating a fresh female student,
who had her bag on her head. The DSA was said to have claimed that the bag
containing the students’ belongings was too heavy and could not be allowed in
the hostel. Her decision was protested by three students, whom she got
arrested by the university security personnel.
"It was in the course of intervening in such prevailing anomalies that three
students (Michael Lenin, Afoo and VON) asked the Dean certain questions.
However, before much was said, the response the students got was
brutalization by the university security personnel, ordered by the Dean. The
university security personnel, led by ‘Baba Ibeji’, were drunk," alleged the
students.
The students warned that the university is unsafe if it has drunkards in its
security team. They also argued that the attack on the students, as ordered by
the DSA, is an invitation to cultism.
"Students, who no longer find their safety assured by the university
management will seek security elsewhere. Fundamentally, the Dean and the
security personnel, who brutalized the students, for no just cause, have infringed
on the rights and liberty of these students under the Nigerian law," stated the
disaffected students. On account of that, the students are demanding that the
DSA and the security man, ‘Baba Ibeji’ be sanctioned.
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