Academic activities yesterday resumed at the Ogun State-owned Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY) after a four-month closure following the strike embarked upon by its lecturers and subsequent protest by the students, during which some students were arrested.
Eko Trust correspondent, who yesterday visited the school’s main campus at Ojere, Abeokuta, reported that students were seen discussing in groups, unsure of when their second semester examination, which was supposed to start before they embarked on a protest over the long closure, will start. A hint emerged, however, that the examinations could start within the next one or two weeks, though that could not be confirmed.
A sore point in the peace talks between the state government and elders in the state which led to the reopening is the case of the four students who were yet to meet the bail conditions given by Chief Magistrate Adeola Adelaja of the Ogun State Magistrate Court 1, sitting at Isabo, Abeokuta, as there was apprehension the students could miss the examinations if they remained in detention.
The police had arrested 20 persons on December 5, 2017 when the students protested the school’s closure, although five of that number were said to be bona fide students of the polytechnic, with the rest believed to be corps members and sympathisers who had joined in the protest.
On the fateful Tuesday, the students had stormed the Office of the Rector, Mr Ayodeji Tella, ostensibly to ascertain the true position on their second semester examination.
Apparently not satisfied with the acting Rector’s explanation, the students insisted that he follow them to the Ogun State Governor’s office to repeat all he had told them in the presence of Governor Ibikunle Amosun.
It was understood that though the Rector agreed to their demand, he somehow disappeared, along with the school’s Chief Security Officer, from the Hilus van on the way to the governor’s office.
The development infuriated the students, leading to hours of violence, which paralyzed commercial activities in the central business district of Ibara, Abeokuta.
The angry students maintained that the protest was necessary to allow the final year students of the institution write their final examinations and allow others move to the next academic level on time.
By the time protest dust settled, at least, a student reportedly collapsed and a police officer sustained bruises, while damages were done to the electronic billboards erected under the popular Ibara flyover.
On Thursday, December 7, 2017, the police, arising from the protest, arraigned 17 persons for attempted murder. Other charges, according to the suit number MA/838c/2017, included unlawful assault, vandalism of vehicles and obstruction of peace.
The accused persons were alleged to have attempted to kill one police officer, Daniel Samuel, by inflicting injuries with an iron on his forehead. They were also accused of unlawfully assaulting another officer, Bola Alonge, and preventing him from executing his official duty, disturbing the peace and vandalising a MAPOLY Hilux vehicle.
With the facts before Justice Adelaja, only she can determine where the pendulum will swing in dispensation of justice in the tango between the students and the state government, as hearing on the case resumes on February 2, 2018.
