Students of the University of Ibadan have since taken to the social media to agitate for the removal of the school’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Abel Olayinka. The students created a hashtag #Olayinkamustgo has been trending on Twitter since the early hours of Monday, 30th of May, 2016. The agitation was a response to the arrest of two past union leaders, Tokunbo Salako, and Babatunde Badmus, presumably on the orders of the VC.
Babatunde Badmus (BB) took to the official Facebook page of University of Ibadan students’ Union on Monday, May 30, to inform the public that he and Tokunbo Salako have been arrested and detained at Sango Police station, Ibadan, on the directive of the University of Ibadan’s Vice Chancellor.
In an interview with Tokunbo Salako, he narrated how the event unfolded to the SaharaReporters. “I was sitting at the Students Union Building (SUB) when the university’s Chief Security Officer (CSO) came with about 20 security men and asked what I was doing in the building and then ordered the security men to arrest me, but the security men were reasonable people and would not arrest me. When he (CSO) saw that his boys did not obey him, he then held me by my trousers; that was when I pushed the CSO back.
All of them (security men) then carried me to their office. We were outside when BB came. The VC then called the police to come and arrest me. BB followed me to Sango. Students’ union excos and other Students joined us at Sango police station while we were still writing statements. W
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were transferred to Iyaganku Police station but before then, the VC called the DPO of Sango police station that she should detain me and BB till tomorrow. The DPO told him that she would inform the commissioner of police. The Commissioner of Police then ordered that we be released immediately. The commissioner appealed for calm, and promised to address us tomorrow.” He narrated.
According to a special release by the Students Union government, a meeting had been scheduled to hold by 10 am on Monday, May 30th at the SUB where Tokunbo Salako was arrested. The leadership of the Students Union has called out to its members for a meeting again, tomorrow at SUB by 10 am. This, obviously, is in defiance to the school management’s decision to shut down the school.
The University of Ibadan has been shut down since April 26th, 2016 after a two-day protest against what the students perceived as unjust rustication of Tunji Epketi Micheal aka MOTE, a 500 level student of Petroleum Engineering.
On Thursday, November 19th, 2015, Mote had joined a protest led by the residents of Independence Hall in University of Ibadan. The residents of Independence Hall were reported to have protested about the lack of water and power in the hall. The protest led to the rustication of Mote for two semesters.
In a bid to resolve the issue and reopen the school, the management of the University of Ibadan called for a meeting between the university management and parents. This was also communicated through the VC’s Facebook page. The meeting has been scheduled for June, 7th 2016.
Tokunbo Salako and Babatunde Badmus are postgraduate students at the Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan. It is also worthy of mention that the post-graduate students are not affected by the school's closure hence, the two union leaders did nothing wrong being in the University premises.