What is happening in UNIOSUN?

SOME recent revelations about the bizarre experiences of the students of the Osun State University (UNIOSUN) certainly cast a grave slur on the essence and reputation of the institution. The situation is so bad that it is now doubtful if the school should continue to be classified as an institution of higher learning or a ritual shrine in the mould of the legendary Okija shrine in the earlier days of the current Republic.

Recently, the students of the institution embarked on a violent protest of the killing, by suspected ritual killers, of one of their own, Oluwafemi Shonibare, a 400-level Microbiology student who had been declared missing by the police since June 26. The state police command confirmed his killing by suspected ritual killers after his decomposing body was found in a bush close to the house of an Islamic cleric in the Oke-Baale area of Osogbo, the state capital. Angered by the incessant killings and disappearances of students in the area, some residents of the area had set the cleric’s residence alight and also vandalised a mosque.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Olufimihan Adeoye, while parading the suspected killers, said they committed the crime at the Oke-Baale area of Osogbo around 7.30 p.m on June 26. The suspects, he said, conspired and killed the student by hitting him on the head with a pestle. The commissioner added that the victim’s head, two wrists and palms were cut off while his remains were dumped in the bush. It will be recalled that in December 2016, another 400-level female student of the institution, Rofiat Adebisi, was also kidnapped by a taxi driver  in Ipetu-Ijesa, Osun State. Her corpse was found some days later.  The police arrested the taxi driver who reportedly made confessional statements, although it is not clear how far the prosecution has gone in nailing the culprit appropriately in the court of law.

In its statement following the violent protest by the students of the institution, the state government, while mourning the killing of Shonibare, said inter alia: “This is not the first time a student of the institution which is reportedly ravaged by insecurity has been declared missing in the last few months.” Both the state government and the police are therefore aware of the security challenges confronting the state university even if  they were silent on what they had done to correct this ignoble remiss until the violent protest by the students. The issue of security of lives and property is too crucial to be handled so shoddily, especially by those whose responsibility it is to avail the society with it.

The press statement credited to the Osun State government mourning Shonibare’s killing would be merely perfunctory if it is not matched with equal seriousness and commitment not only to see that the previous deaths and kidnappings are duly investigated and the culprits decisively dealt with, but also to ensure that such occurrences cease forthwith. Without the security of life and property, society exists only in the imagination of the deluded.  In the case of UNIOSUN that is characterised by such glaring absence of security, it has now become incumbent upon the government to convince its citizens and the patrons of the university that it is truly committed to protecting the lives of these presumed leaders of tomorrow while they are being educated. The students’ lives cannot continue to be cheaply and criminally wasted. The case in UNIOSUN actually demands special attention since the students of the institution have been assailed on several occasions by ritual killers on the one hand and the police and the Nigerian Navy on the other.  Predators take their turns to harass the students one after the other and this is really precarious.

We call for a thorough investigation of all the missing students, including an only child of distraught parents who is still missing. We are of the opinion that the circumstances surrounding these bizarre occurrences in the school should be properly investigated in order to have a truly wholesome institution of higher learning in the long run and not a shrine that is pretending to be a school.