University of Ibadan

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

Activities at the University of Ibadan, UI, were paralysed this morning as thousands of students went on the rampage and shut down the school over management’s victimization of a student who took part in a recent protest.

The students wondered why only a student was singled out for punishment after hundreds of them, last month, protested against poor power supply and inadequate water in the school.

The students, who stormed the school’s main gate early in the morning shut it down immediately. They were also angry that power supply in the institution is still very epileptic while there is no water in the hostels.

Management of the school had punished a 500-level Engineering student, Michael Epeti, by adding an additional semester to his stay on campus for taking part in the last protest the students organized.

The students, who were chanting ‘aluta’ songs, dared security men attached to the gate to do something stupid as they were ready to descend on any of them. They vowed that the school gate would remain shut until the school’s management reversed its decision to add an extra semester to Epeti’s stay in the school.

Academic, administrative and commercial activities in the school were paralysed as no vehicle was allowed in and out of the school. Traffic gridlock on UI Road was hell as motorists wanting to gain entrance into the institution could not do so as the all gates leading to the school were shut.

A student of the school, who craved anonymity, told our reporter on phone that thousands of students marched to the main gate and shut it down and dared the management of the citadel of learning to do their worst.

According to him, the students expected the management of the institution to immediately reverse its decision.

Last month, students of the school shut the school’s gate as they protested against poor power and water supply to the school.

A former student’s union leader of the school, popularly called ‘Tcool’ said the student’s victimization was inappropriate, saying that if the students did not fight it out now, more students would be victimized also.