There was confusion at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, on Wednesday when one of the hostels in the institution was gutted by fire. The inferno, which occurred around 10 p.m, affected
Block 7, Room 107 of the Awolowo Hall. According to eyewitnesses’ account, some male occupants of the hostel had gone to watch Wednesday match between Argentina and Netherlands when the hostel was gutted. The students, who have refused to vacate the campus in line with the management’s directive, claimed to have heard a loud bang before the fire started and hurriedly put out the fire before fire fighters got to the scene.
Addressing a press conference in Osogbo on Friday to mark the 15 years remembrance of the five students of the institution that were slained by a group of cultists in July 10, 1999, the president of the university
Students’ Union, Comrade Ibikunle Isaac, called on the Federal Government and security agencies to investigate the cause of the fire, saying it was a mystery.
Ibikunle, who disclosed that the room that was gutted by fire was under lock and key due to the management’s vacation order that forced some students out of the campus, said he suspected an explosion owing to the gravity of the destruction. The students’ union president noted that since the massacre of the then institution’s Students’ Union Secretary General, George Iwilade a.k.a. Africa, Yemi Ajiteru, Eviano
Ekelemu, Tunde Oke (Sabo) and Godspower by agents of secret cult, the university had maintained zero tolerance for cultism and has been intensifying campaign against it on campus.
He, therefore, urged the university management led by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Bamitale Omole, to re-open the school and reverse the hiked fees, saying the 1999 attack on OAU campus was an aftermath of a struggle against increment in fees as implemented by the then VC, Prof. Wale Omole.
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