OAU Students Ordered To Vacate Hostels By Noon Saturday, School Shut

By Dorcas Elusogbon/Ile-Ife

Students of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife have been ordered by the authorities to vacate the hostels by noon Saturday following a protest over the death of a student.

The school said the closure was to forestall further breakdown of law and order, Public Relations Officer of the University, Abiodun Olanrewaju, said.

All students have been directed to vacate their halls of residence and the campus, latest by noon on Saturday, 2 October, 2021.

Olanrewaju on Friday announced the death on Tuesday 28 September of Aishat Adesina, a 24-year old Part 4 female student of the Department of Foreign Languages.

He said the lady reported to the university’s Health Centre with signs and symptoms of a severe infection.

She was promptly treated with some prescribed drugs and asked to report back as an out-patient.

She reported back to the Health Centre in the morning of Thursday, 30th September, 2021.

Upon examination, the release said, she was referred to the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital, for further management where she regrettably died on the same day.

Olarewaju stated that the management understood the grief resulting from this untimely death within the community and sympathised with the parents, friends, colleagues and the entire students of the University on this sad loss, and prayed for the repose of her soul.

In the meantime, the University management has put in place a machinery to unravel the circumstances surrounding the immediate and remote cause(s) of the students’ protests.

Consequently, the swearing-in of the newly elected Students’ Union officials has been put on hold, pending a review of the situation, the release said.

Management also condemned in strong terms the continuous and uncontrolled protests by the students culminating in unbridled brigandage, blocking the Ife/Ibadan and Ife/Ede highways and other adjoining roads that could be used as alternative routes to the school.

Management said it opposed students’ engaging in other acts that were detrimental to their health and the safety of the generality of the people.