Plans have been made by the University of Ibadan’s administration in Oyo State to punish students who demonstrated against an increase in tuition.
The university claimed that students protesting about fee increases in front of the vice-chancellor constituted a grave misconduct in a May 24 question sent to one of the students by I.A. Abiona, the dean of student affairs, and distributed on X on Tuesday.
“The office of the Vice Chancellor has reported to the Student Affairs Division that, on Monday, May 13, 2024, you and three other students, along with an unidentified individual named Adeyeye Oluwafemi, disrupted the swearing-in ceremony for the newly elected Student Union executives,” the inquiry stated.
It said, “At this event, you, Nice Linus, Adeyeye Oluwafemi (an unidentified person), and Olamide Gbadegesin lyanuoluwa carried placards with scandalous inscriptions against school fee increment.”
The kids were threatened with suspension by the school if they did not reply to the inquiry within 48 hours, accusing them of egregious wrongdoing.
“You have engaged in egregious misconduct by your actions, especially your disorderly conduct when the vice chancellor and other university administration members were present,” UI stated.
Mr. Adeyeye, an activist who participated in the demonstration and was identified as a “unknown person” in the inquiry, chastised the UI for quelling demonstrators’ voices rather than addressing the concerns they brought up.
When reached for comment on Tuesday, Mr. Adeyeye told Peoples Gazette, “This nonsense is expected because our university system is run by autocrats.” In a hall, it was merely a nonviolent protest. Very peaceful until they arrived with security guards, dragged us outside, beat us, and then transported us to Agodi, where they detained us for four hours. Rather than attending to the concerns voiced by the demonstrators, they targeted the messenger. However, we’ll push back against it.
Frustrated with UI’s decision to penalize students for opposing fee increases in the face of national economic distress, X user @musediqramon shared a screenshot of the inquiry criticizing UI.
“UI administration has gone rogue once more. After a few brave students held signs calling for the cancellation of the evil fee increase, they were attacked, humiliated, and eventually taken into custody. We will fight the management’s attempt to get them ejected after they have called them in.
Leave a Reply