Patrick Idowu
There was pandemonium at the mini campus of the University of Abuja, Gwagwalada, Abuja, after some thugs invaded the institution, demolished shops and allegedly assaulted some students.
According to the President of the Students’ Union Government (SUG) of the institution, Comrade Yusuf Jamiu Tobi, who disclosed the incident to newsmen on Thursday.
Tobi said he was at the university’s main campus when he received a distress call around 9:12 am. that some thugs, led by police officers and civil defence corps, invaded the mini campus around 5 am and started demolishing wooden kiosks and other shops belonging to students
He said upon receiving the call, he quickly went to the mini campus and discovered that the thugs, allegedly wielding cutlasses and other hard objects, were destroying shops without any prior notice to the students’ union government or the student community.
He said despite approaching the thugs and persuading them to halt the demolition, they ignored him and continued pulling down the shops.
The students’ leader said he then mobilized some students on campus who also tried to stop the demolition, but the thugs ignored them as well.
When I told them to stop the demolition, they refused. I then mobilized some of the students who came. At that point, some of the thugs were trying to fight the students and started insulting them, but the situation was later calmed down,” he alleged.
He said afterward, he was invited to the police division in the area, where some police officers explained the rationale behind the demolition of the shops at the mini campus.
He said some of the thugs allegedly assaulted students in the process, alleging that one of the thugs seized a student’s phone and smashed it on the ground
The SUG president claimed that some of the students who owned the demolished shops and kiosks lost valuables, including undisclosed sums of money, during the demolition.
Tobi said he told the police officers that the land where the shops were located belonged to the students’ union, and therefore, there should have been a prior notification to the students’ union or the university management before pulling down any shops on campus.
He said the police later ordered the thugs to stop the demolition after they discovered the students had insisted on returning to the campus to confront the thugs.
He added, “In summary, after we finished, we went to the vice chancellor’s office where we expressed our displeasure over the demolition. The chief security officer of the university was also there.”
Comrade Tobi said that while reacting to the incident, the vice chancellor told the union that neither the developer nor any security operatives had issued any prior notice of demolition of shops on the mini campus.
“So, the VC said the matter will be tabled before the chancellor and other stakeholders of the university. But the most annoying thing is that the students’ union government ought to have been given prior notice so that the students with shops would know what to do, instead of coming and starting to pull down their shops without their consent,” he said
He said the Students’ Union Government (SUG) condemned the act of demolition or enforcement that excluded due consultation and notification to students.
According to him, the union remains unwavering in its mission to safeguard the rights, welfare, and dignity of all students of the university.
The police in the area confirmed the incident.
