BREAKING: Nigerian Police Forced To Release OAU Students After Colleagues Protested At Moore Division

The Nigerian Police at the Moore division in Ile-Ife, Osun State, were forced to release two students of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) — Oladepo Joshua and Ejike Kelechi — after their colleagues stormed and almost shut down the division on Thursday evening.

SaharaReporters had reported that the duo were being detained at the Moore Police Station, Ile-Ife, Osun State, for protesting against the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, who came to deliver a lecture at the institution.

The lecture, which took place at the university’s Oduduwa Hall in Osun State on Thursday, sparked protests among some student groups who questioned Wike’s political conduct and suitability for the honour.

According to a source who spoke to SaharaReporters, the duo were released by the police after the students protest.

SaharaReporters had earlier reported that a former student of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), John Udeh, who was arrested in 2018 for alleged cult-related activities, was accused of working with the authorities to harass students protesting the presence of Wike on campus.

Udeh, who was a Part 2 student of Social Studies Education at the time of his arrest in 2018, was seen in a video, confronting and intimidating the student protesters during Wike’s visit to the institution.

According to sources who spoke to SaharaReporters, the former suspect was part of a group used to suppress a peaceful demonstration by students who opposed Wike’s invitation to deliver the university's Distinguished Personality Lecture at Oduduwa Hall.

SaharaReporters gathered that the protest, which started as a nonviolent expression of dissent, was met with hostility as some individuals, including Udeh, attempted to disperse the students and obstruct media coverage of their demonstration.

However, the two students — Oladepo Joshua and Ejike Kelechi — raised placards inside the hall, calling on the minister to “compensate those whose houses you demolished.”

A source in the school management told SaharaReporters on Thursday that the school, however, claimed the protesters were restrained by fellow students. 

However, Udeh, who collected their placards, had been arrested as a cultist in 2018 but he was later released.

The source said Udeh has remained on campus since then and is allegedly known as a cultist being used by the university to intimidate students.

The source said Udeh should have left school, but he is still in the school after nine years.

According to the source, "The school claimed they were restrained by fellow students but the guy that led the students was arrested as a cultist in 2018 and later released. He has been in the school since then as a known cultist who the school allegedly uses to threaten students. 

"So he was used to attack the two students protesting. He should have left school but he iis still there after nine years."