NANS Demands Justice On OAU Student’s Death, Frown At Jungle Justice

 

Yusuf Oketola

THE National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has called on the police to bring everybody responsible for the death of a 500-level Civil Engineering student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Okoli Chizoputam to justice.

Chizoputam died on Tuesday, April 11, 2023 after he was reportedly beaten by students of Awo Hall for allegedly stealing a mobile telephone. 

A statement signed by the National Public Relations Officer of NANS, Temitope Giwa, said the students body visited Dean of Students’ Affairs of the university, Prof. I.O Aransi, Chief Security Officer of the institution, Babatunde Oyetokun and the Commissioner of Police in the state of Osun, Kehinde Longe, on Tuesday for justice advocacy and fact-finding mission.

Giwa, in the statement, said NANS learnt that Chizoputam’s was as a result of mismanagement of a case that could have been best handled in the most lawful means.

He noted that the deceased was kept at the OAU Students’ Union Building for close to eight hours before he gave up the ghost despite the obvious fact that he needed medical attention. 

Giwa said the assault on the deceased left a deep cut on his thigh. 

The cut, according to Giwa, was suspected to be from an object used to inscribe 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.