OAU students protest closure of school by management

Students of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife have protested against the closure of the school on the directive of its management.

The aggrieved students trooped out as early as 7:30am on Saturday as they stormed the streets within and outside the campus in Osun State.

They shut the campus gate and blocked the major roads leading to the school, insisting that the management must rescind its directive on the total shutdown of the campus and that students should vacate the hostels.

Authorities at the institution had ordered the closure of the school and directed students to vacate the hostels following a protest sparked by the death of a final year student, Aisat Adesina.

Justice For Aisat

In an interview with Channels Television, students’ union officials said they have zero confidence in the health facility.

They blamed Aisat’s death on personnel who they said did not attend to her properly when she was rushed to the medical facility.

“The first thing we want the management to do is to open our school with immediate effect; we want it now,” said Salvation Grace who is the Vice President-elect of the union.

“We want justice for Aisat, we want justice for Korede (another late student), we want justice for every student who went to that health centre in their lifetime and were not treated properly.”

But the management of the institution had a different view, saying the closure of the school was a necessary decision to take at the moment.

OAU Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Olarewaju, explained that the management took the decision after appealing to the students on four different occasions.

“If you say you are protesting, it is your fundamental human right,” he said. “But you should not allow that protest to lead to violence.

“Blocking the Ife-Ibadan Highway and the Ife-Ede Highway for nine consecutive hours is not right. We now envisaged a situation that as things were going, the university should be proactive and do the needful.”

While scores of students gathered at the Students’ Union building to condemn the management’s decision, Channels Television crew observed that others came out of their hostels with their belongings.

Meanwhile, sources said late Aisat would be buried on Monday at the school’s cemetery.

(Channels TV)