Armed thugs attack OAU VC, entourage, journalists on visit to varsity’s disputed land

…We’re in serious situation -VC

BLESSING AKOROWOSI, Osogbo

A large number of hoodlums on Monday laid seige and attacked the Vice-chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, his entourage, alongside newsmen at Ile-Ife, Osun State.

The thugs, armed with guns, axes, cutlasses, planks and other harmful objects interrupted the university delegates on a visit to the university land at Old Ife–Ede road, Ile-Ife at about 3pm.

The delegates, led by the university VC were violently turned back as the hoodlums who were majorly youths in the community shot in the air, stressing that they are not willing to give up the land.

It would be recalled that the federal government vowed to deal with trespassers of the university land but the land grabbers are yet to evacuate the land.

Prof. Ogunbodede, addressing journalists in the school premises after the incident stated that the school has built hostels on the land but are yet to be occupied by students because of the land grabbers.

“I don’t want to lose any of our students. We are short of accommodation for our students but it’s not worth the lives of our students.

“You can see that it is only God that saved us today. You can see the shooting and all sorts of things but we thank God that we all survived it,” he said.

The VC, however, noted that the university will continue to maintain peace with it’s host community

“We will try as much as possible to continue to reach a perfect understanding with the community. We have been doing it. We have succeeded over many years and we will continue to do it.

“You can see that we are in a very serious situation as far as OAU land is concerned.

“We will try as much as possible to ensure that in doing this, we continue to maintain peace and harmony within the community.”

Speaking on the federal government matching order, Prof. Ogunbodede said they are not interested in ceding an inch of the university land to anybody.

He added that the federal government has given a substantial amount of money to start the fencing.

“They are conscious of the fact that we have a council for the university. The council is also being conscious of the fact that we have maintained cordial relationships with the community and we will continue to maintain that relationship but not at the expense of the university land. We are not going to allow people to occupy the gazetted land without approval from the federal government. If the federal government decide to revise it, no problem. But, as far as that is still standing, it is going to be difficult for anybody to just cede out of the university land.

“Ooni is aware and he has given us his words that he’s trying to ensure that sanity prevails and we all live in peace”, Ogunbodede said.