UI: STUDENTS PROTEST AGAINST ILLEGAL ARREST OF ABDULLAH

Friday, 21 October, 2016 was not like every other day for the people of Ojoo community, Ibadan as students of the University of Ibadan were seen protesting the illegal arrest of a student, Aliyu Abdullah Ozorya, outside the Ojoo police station.

The students, who stormed Ojoo police station around 7:30 am, were demanding the release of the detained Abdullah, who was said to have been arrested since Wednesday, 19 October, 2016.

The whereabout of Abdullah who is a student of the Department of History, University of Ibadan, could not be ascertained as at Thursday night. According to a close friend of Abdullah, he was said to have gone to Ojoo to change a phone charger he bought but found out it has turn bad. However, a text he sent to his class Whatsapp group page hinted students that he was still in police custody.

We gathered that he has been charged to court on the charge that he assaulted a police officer. The police also claimed that because nobody came to bail him, so he has been charged to court and transferred to Nigerian Prison Service, Agodi, Ibadan.

The students angered at the way one of its own was been treated, blocked the UI- Ojoo road and subsequently the round-about connecting Ojoo to Moniya and the one leading to Iwo-road. Almost immediately, the Police state command, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), and other police station in the surroundings of Ojoo were stationed at the scene. The students, unperturbed by the presence of these Police forces, started gyrating.

The presence of the DPO of Sango police station, Mrs. Joyce Maiyaki, put calm to the building tension. According to her, she was sent as a mediator by the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Kolapo Shodipo, who had assured the release of Abdullah. The students however resumed their gyration promising to leave only when Abdullah is being released from Agodi Prison.

It was with joy when Abdullah was driven in by the DPO Sango Police Station herself at around 3:40 pm. The frenzy mood in the atmosphere doused totally as street lurkers were seen congratulating students.

Abdullah who spoke to one of our correspondence narrated the story of how he became detained and later transferred to prison “I was given a punch by the owner of the shop I bought the charger when I demanded to be given another one or a refund. I called my brother who stays in Ojoo barracks. He came down and he happened to know the shop-owner. While still trying to settle the matter, three police men walked to the scene and upon siting me wearing the Army camouflaged vest, I was been pulled by the belt. They asked if I was a soldier and I reply negative and then they started to beat me and tore my clothes,” he said.

“I faced a judge at Moniya magistrate court on Thursday, 20 September, who granted me a bail and adjourned hearing for a later date,” he commented on his court trial.

While recounting his experience at Agodi Prison, he lamented on the poor state of some inmate of the prison and the prison management in general.

“The experience is not an easy one; I was put in a prison of over 80 inmates charged with different crimes. Some already sentenced other awaiting trials even after two years. The food was so poor that I had to order food from outside with the cash seized from me. Some prisoners who have been condemned and almost dying are isolated in a separate prison,” he said.

“Although it was generally a bitter experience, I also garnered some good advice from the inmates who advised on patience and non-violent as a principle of living a peaceful life in the ’outside world’,” he concluded.