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OYO: 4 policemen injured, 8 vans vandalised as police, students clash

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OYO: 4 policemen injured, 8 vans vandalised as police, students clash

There was chaos in Oyo State when students of the Federal College of Agriculture, Moor Plantation, Apata, Ibadan, who were calling for the removal of the Provost of the school, Dr Babajide Adenekan, clashed with security forces.

Reports say the Provost of the school had called on men of the the Oyo State Police Command when the students trooped to the Ibadan-Abeokuta Expressway blocking the main road linking Oyo and Ogun states forcing motorists to take alternative routes.

According to Abiodun Odude, the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, four cops who were injured in the clash which witnessed the vandalisation of eight vehicles have been admitted to a hospital.

Trouble started after an ongoing disagreement between Adenekan and members of the school’s Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic, Non -Academic Staff Union and the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions snowballed into an unrest.

According to a female lecturer of the school who didn’t want to be identified, the matter had been unresolved for over 12-months.

The female lecturer said, “There have been clashes between the provost and lecturers of the school. Some lecturers were suspended, while some claimed their allowances were withheld by the provost illegally.

Read also: Two civil servants get 105-year jail sentence by Abuja court

“But this time, the students were expressing their grievances over the administrative style of the provost. They said the style of the provost triggered several strikes and unnecessary delay in the school’s academic calendar. They also called for the removal of the provost.”

The CP who revealed that five suspects have been arrested following the clash noted that there had been several efforts to resolve the issue between the school authorities and the students but none of the meetings have yielded any positive results.

Odude said, “It has been an off and on situation. We have been on this for the past six months, meeting them and trying to resolve the issues. We have met the students’ union leaders and the school authorities.

“We told the students that they should limit their activities within the school because once you deprive others the use of a public facility, you are against the law. Today (Monday), they blocked the main road during their protest and we sent some policemen there. But they became violent and attacked the policemen.

“Four policemen were injured and they are now in the hospital. Eight police vans were damaged too. We had to use force to push them back into the school. That you are a student does not give you the liberty to break laws. Those who were arrested will be charged to court at the end of investigations”, he stated.

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