Skip to main content

FUOYE Killing: Police Warn Students, Groups Of Unlawful Gathering

September 16, 2019

"The police command has the constitutional mandate to maintain law and order and also to stop any gathering which it thinks might lead to the break down of law and order."

Image

The police in Ekiti State has warned against 'any unlawful assembly' by students and groups.

The warning came on the heels of the ongoing controversy over the killing of two students in Ekiti by security detail attached to Governor Kayode Fayemi's wife, Mrs. Bisi Fayemi.

The two students, said to be among protesters, were shot and killed by security agents of the state.

In a statement on Sunday its spokesperson in the state, Caleb Ikechukwu, the police said it discovered that a group under the aegis of ‘ex-graduates', who are not currently students of any higher
institution, are presently moving into the state to foment trouble over the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) crisis.

“The police command is using this medium to warn anyone or a group of person(s) against any unlawful assembly with an intent to cause a breach of peace.

"The police command has the constitutional mandate to maintain law and order and also to stop any gathering which it thinks might lead to the break down of law and order.

“Furthermore, the police command shall deal decisively with anyone or group who takes the law into their hands. Such a person will be arrested and prosecuted accordingly no matter how highly-placed,” the statement said.

A statement by NYCN Director of Education and Training, Oluwadamilare Bewaji, said: “It is understandable to say that the office of the First Lady has nothing to do with the epileptic supply of electricity
to students’ environment but it would have been wise and safer if she had taken time to address and appease the agitating students.”

Besides, a coalition of over 400 civil society organisations, Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), said the governor’s wife would not be in a position to order the firing of the students and that it would be in the interest of justice not to implicate anyone who has no command of responsibility for the conduct of the police.

The group stated this when it met with the leadership of the SUG of FUOYE in Ibadan to commiserate with the union and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).

According to the chairperson of the group, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, the incident affirms the growing brutality and use of excessive force by the police, and the entrenched culture of impunity of perpetrators in several parts of the country, which has once again resulted in these preventable deaths of the two innocent students.

The TMG, which, however, urged the inspector-general of police to ensure that the culprits are brought to book to serve as deterrence to others, demanded justice in an unequivocal term for the students of FUOYE and immediate lift on the ban of the students union.
 

Topics
Police