After policemen arrested two students of the University of Ibadan on Monday, FIJ learnt from Ayodele Aduwo that his and Olawale Olajide’s arrest was due to the role he played in the UI student protests in August.
FIJ had earlier reported how security operatives in plain clothes seized Aduwo and Olajide from the Students Union Building around 11 am on Monday. They landed in the criminal department of Iyaganku Police Station in Ibadan.
Aduwo explained in a call with FIJ on Tuesday that they found out that some Department of State Services (DSS) operatives had been in the Students Union Building cafeteria with them but had remained in disguise.
He told FIJ he declined when the university’s deputy chief security officer called him to see the Chief Security Officer (CSO).
“That was not the first time I would be meeting the CSO. I told him that if CSO wanted to see me, the due thing would have been to text me,” Aduwo explained.
“Afterwards, they became agitated. Wale (Olajide) who was there with me said they can’t take me away. Eventually, when I saw they became even more agitated, I called my people to notify them, including my lawyer. I moved with them to the security unit.”
Aduwo further said that there were other students at the Students Union Building. So, he thought he could not have been invited because he was still in school against the management’s directives.
He insisted that the security officers took him because he played a part in the school fee hike protest.
“If the contention was that I was still in school, it would have been simple. But there were other students there, so, why were they specific about me?” Aduwo said on Tuesday.
“The whole idea of the arrest was because of the role I’ve been playing to mobilise students to stand against the institutionalisation of the fee hike policy.”
Aduwo further narrated he got to the CSO’s office with Olajide and, to his dismay, the number of security personnel he saw there had increased.
READ ALSO: UI Students Protest Management’s Attempt to Cap Daily Power Supply at 10 Hours
“The DPO of Sango (Ibadan) police station was there including members of the State Criminal Investigative Department,” Aduwo said.
“They told me of how they’ve been monitoring my movement. How I went home earlier, and how they have the video of how I got home. I was shocked. That was how I knew it was serious.
“They took me in the van. I thought they would take me to Sango since it was closer, but they took me to Iyaganku together with Wale.
“When we got to Iyaganku, they took us to the Criminal Investigative Department and we met with the deputy commissioner of police.
“She (the deputy CP) said we have been the ones disturbing the school, that “how much was N200,000 plus that they increased our school fees to that we are complaining?” She insulted us and called us vagabonds.
“They asked me to write a statement, and I wrote exactly what I just narrated to you. Wale also wrote (a statement). They also asked me to write an undertaking directed to the deputy commissioner of police that I would be of good behaviour, and I simply wrote that I would be of good behaviour like I have always been.”
Aduwo said that, before the governing council’s decision on Thursday, the head of the Ibadan DSS simply known as “Mr Sodiq” had called him on Tuesday.
Sodiq had preempted that the students may be protesting following the outcome of the governing council’s meeting, Aduwo said.
“He said they forwarded my number and three other students’ numbers to him. They have been monitoring and bugging our phones since last Tuesday. People who have called me have been telling me that my line has been misbehaving,” Aduwo said.
‘FOR PROTESTING, I MIGHT NOT GRADUATE WITH MY SET’
FIJ also gathered that Aduwo alongside two other students, Olamide Gbadegesin Iyanuoluwa and Nice Linus have been previously summoned to the school’s disciplinary committee for carrying placards on May 13 during a students union event.
“The Student Affairs Division has received a report from the office of the Vice-Chancellor preferred against you, that on Monday, May 13, 2024, you and three other students, including an unknown person (Adeyeye Oluwafemi), disrupted the swearing-in ceremony for the newly elected executives of the Students’ Union,” the summons read in part.
“At this event, Olamide Gbadegesin Iyanuoluwa, Nice Linus, Adeyeye Oluwafemi (an unknown person) and Aduwo Ayodele carried placards with scandalous inscriptions against school fee increments.”
READ ALSO: UI Management Tells Students to Vacate Campus for 3 Weeks Following Fee Hike Protests
Following that protest, the Oyo State security outfit code-named ‘Operation Burst’ whisked the three students were whisked away.
Credits: Amnesty Nigeria
“Our protest that day was not long. It started when the union’s president was to give his speech and it ended when he finished his speech. The security beat us forcefully and dragged us out of the venue and eventually handed us to Operation Burst,” Aduwo narrated.
“When we got there and narrated what happened with video evidence, the second-in-command of the security unit that was there said that the university had lied to them that it was a case of violence between two cult groups, and that was why they came.”
Aduwo insists that the university management is continuously persecuting him for leading protests against anti-student decisions.
After Operation Burst released them in May, Aduwo and the other students faced the school’s disciplinary panel.
“The case is still there, but with the way the thing works is when my set is graduating, we would not be going anywhere,” Aduwo said.
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