A former Secretary General of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and a leading presidential aspirant of the student body, Comr. Momodu Daniel has called on the management of the University of Ibadan to find a lasting solution to the alarming rate of attacks on female students and robbery operations within the university community, most especially female hostels.
It will be recalled that the Obafemi Awolowo Hall of residence of the university, and one of the female wings of the university’s postgraduate hostels, Abdulsalami Abubakar Hall, were recently attacked by some men suspected to be armed robbers. The yet-to-be-identified hoodlums carted away belongings of these helpless female students.
Momodu advised that the university take concerted efforts and adopt holistic approach in tackling this security challenge. He condemned the locking up of Abdulsalami Abubakar Hall residents to their blocks between 12 midnight and 5:00am every day, calling it a wrong measure to curtail security threats. He stated that aside robbery threats, the outcome would be terrible should there be any case of emergency, for instance fire outbreak, in any of the blocks since the gates to each block are always locked up every night against the students who do not have access to the keys.
The student leader stated further that: “It is quite unfortunate that the revered University of Ibadan is making the headlines for a wrong reason. It is equally sad that Nigerian students are victims of such barbarism and I call on security agencies to help unravel those behind this heinous crimes and bring them to book without any delay.
“I sympathize with the affected students and also urge them to be more vigilant and security conscious. Also I appeal to the management of the university to continue to prioritise the welfare of the students as this will bring about a more conducive ambience for learning.
“I will advise the university to constitute a security monitoring team among the students and not see them as too young to help in finding solutions to challenges of this nature.
“Lastly, I wish to enjoin the university to also give the students more liberty to question unknown faces in their vicinities. This will only happen when the students have a trusted leader and they are allowed to come together as one”, Comr. Momodu concluded.
