NANS Demands Justice For OAU Final Year Students Beaten To Death Over Alleged Phone Theft

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has urged the police to pursue those accountable for the death of Okoli Chizoputam, a Civil Engineering 500-level student at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

It would be recalled that a final year civil engineering student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife, has been pronounced dead following a mob attack at Awo Hall.

Chizoputam passed away on Tuesday, April 11, 2023, after allegedly being assaulted by Awo Hall students for allegedly stealing a cell phone.

In a statement signed by the National Public Relations Officer of NANS, Temitope Giwa, expressed displeasure over the ugly incident.

Giwa said they visited the university’s Dean of Students’ Affairs, Prof. I.O. Aransi, as well as the institution’s Chief Security Officer, Babatunde Oyetokun, and the Commissioner of Police in the state of Osun, Kehinde Longe, on Tuesday to advocate for justice and gather information,

He claimed that NANS had discovered that Chizoputam’s death was due to improper handling of a case that could have been resolved in the most legal manner.

He pointed out that despite the fact that it was evident the deceased needed medical care, he was kept inside the OAU Students’ Union Building for close to eight hours before passing away.

Giwa claimed that the deceased had a big cut on his thigh from the assault.

According to him, the cut was thought to have been caused by a tool used to engrave the O sign on Chizoputam’s thigh.

He said: “During our interaction with both the Dean, Division of Students’ Affairs and the CSO of the institution, we got to understand that the death was a result of mismanagement of a case that could have been best handled in the most lawful means.

“We were also told that as against the information making round, at no point was the Quick Response Squad of the University called upon to convey the deceased to the health centre before he gave up the ghost.

“In fact, as a students’ body which frowns against criminality in every form of it, we maintain that it was very wrong to have called the security unit of OAU to convey the deceased to the health centre before he gave up the ghost.

“The leadership of the OAU Students’ Union should have, upon been handed over to by the security committee of Awolowo Hall where the theft was alleged to have taken place immediately taken him to the health centre for necessary treatment to be administered on him considering the injury he has suffered as a result of the beaten he got at Awolowo Hall.

“On his thigh is a very deep cut and what appears to be the use of an object to inscribe O on his thigh.

“While interacting with the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Kehinde Longe, we made our stance known that we shall not in anyway stand in the way of justice and that we shall collaborate and cooperate with the institution of the police to ensure that everyone involved in the murder are brought to justice.

“The only favour we can do to the memory of the dead is to ensure that justice is served appropriately in order to serve as deterrence for others.

“We have tasked the police to ensure that those the deceased was handed over to at the Students’ Union Building be invited and interrogated too as it will assist in the cause of investigation.

“Keeping the students in custody for close to eight hours before he gave up the ghost despite the obvious fact that he needed medical attention as a result of the beating he had suffered while at Awolowo Hall is in itself culpability.

“Once again, we state that we frown against every form of jungle justice, not even on our campuses. Mob means people and everyone involved in that shameful and criminal act must be identified and brought to justice.”