At a high-profile event on campus on Thursday, two students, Oladepo Joshua and Ejike Kelechi, were arrested for demonstrating against Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike, causing tension at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State.
Police officers from the Moore Division in Ile-Ife were said to have arrested the students, but they were later freed after their peers reportedly staged a show of support by besieging the police station and almost closing it down.
When Wike was scheduled to speak at the 2025 Distinguished Personality Lecture, the two protested inside Oduduwa Hall.
Video showed the students carrying signs and chanting calls for reparations for Abuja citizens whose houses were purportedly destroyed while Wike was the FCT Minister.
The students chanted, “Compensate those whose houses you demolished,” as security guards escorted them out.
Students and onlookers responded to the demonstration in different ways, causing instability within the campus community.
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Several people who spoke to Sahara Reporters claimed that the demonstration was put down by a former pupil named John Udeh, who had been jailed in 2018 for cult-related offenses.
When he was arrested, Udeh, a Social Studies Education Part 2 student, was allegedly observed addressing the demonstrators and stealing their signs.
Despite Udeh’s prior imprisonment and prolonged stay at the university, sources in the student body and university community have voiced alarm over his continued presence on campus, alleging that he still works with authorities to stifle opposition.
The school stated that their other students had restrained them; however, the person who led the group was arrested in 2018 as a cultist and eventually freed, according to the source. Since then, he has been present at the school as a well-known cult leader who is supposedly used by the institution to intimidate pupils.
He thus attacked the two students who were protesting. He should have dropped out of school, but nine years later, he is still enrolled.
