Posted by By Yemi Akinsuyi on
Police in Lagos have arrested about 30 University of Lagos (UNILAG) students over last month's civil disturbances at the school main campus which left many injured and properties worth millions of naira destroyed.
Police in Lagos have arrested about 30 University of Lagos (UNILAG) students over last month's civil disturbances at the school main campus which left many injured and properties worth millions of naira destroyed.
A final year Law student of the institution, Mr. Olaoluwa Akosile, was said to have died mysteriously after receiving a phone call, suspected to have come from the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Oye Ibidapo-Obe.
Akosile, Speaker of Students Union, alongside his President, Femi Oderinde, reportedly addressed students after a protest over power outage and the Federal Government's plan to privatise accommodation. While Akosile was said to have slumped and died after receiving this strange phone call, Oderinde was rushed to the school's health centre for immediate medical attention, after he was said to have received a similar call from the VC.
This development, therefore, angered the students and this led to the burning down of the VC's lodge and the residence of the Dean of Students Affairs, Prof. Dele Oluwakudejo.
The institution has been closed down since the incident.
About 20 students had earlier been arrested for the riot, violence, arson, while the police were said to be keeping watch over the rest of them, suspected to have been involved in the dastardly act.
Opportunity seemed to have come yesterday, when more than 30 students of the institution in two separate 18-Seater Buses, who were just returning from the burial of the Speaker of the students' union, were arrested by the men of the State Criminal Investigation Depart-ment (SCID), Panti, Lagos, at Ibafo area of Ogun State.
One of the arrested students, who gave her name as Ope, in a telephone chat with THISDAY yesterday night, claimed the students were not told their offence, adding that after they were detained at the Ibafo Police Station, they were later taken to Panti, after undergoing 'emotional stress".
In her words: "As we were returning from Ibadan, Oyo State, from the burial of our late Speaker, we were accosted at Ibafo by some policeman, arrested and detained us at the station. Despite all pleadings to know our offence, the stern-looking policemen did not tell us our offence. We were later released and taken to Panti, where we were made to write down our names to ascertain if we were on the police wanted list."
As at last night, none of the arrested students had been detained or released by the policemen, but they were just asked to wait.
Confirming the story, Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, Lagos State Police Command, Mr. John Haruna, said his men were not out to embarrass the students, but to arrest those who have been on the wanted list of the police in connection with the crime committed in the school.
Haruna said that once their names are not on the list of the suspected criminals, they would be released to go home, warning that whoever was found on the list would be detained and charged to court for the due process of the law to take place.
"These students have disobeyed the law of the land, and they will be made to pay for their sins. Imagine that the wife of the Dean of Students' Affairs was made to pass through hell for an offence she neither knew nor committed. Some of the students broke a bottle on the woman's head.
"I can tell you that we will not stop until we have brought to book those that participated in the violent crime. Although I can tell you that some of them arrested today did not participate in the dastard act, but we have the names and the photographs of the criminals and whoever's name is not found on the list will be made to go home free.
"We are not out to embarrass anybody. We are doing our job the way it is supposed to be done, and I can promise you that we will not rest until they are all arrested and prosecuted", Haruna warned.