Students at the Federal University of Technology in Akure, Ondo State, marched off of their campus today to protest alleged harassment and extortion by certain people suspected of being thugs and cults at the institution’s second entrance.
During the demonstration, students obstructed the road leading to the university’s second gate, causing traffic jam for many hours in the region.
They claimed that the thugs harassed those who reside off-campus in the South Gate Area, particularly new students, on a regular basis.
They further claimed that the miscreants would harass and chase them into the school without being restrained by security agents on numerous occasions.
Bola, one of the demonstrators, claimed the alleged harassment had been going on for a long time and had now become a daily occurrence.
Some of these youngsters are thugs and cultists, he claimed, and they’ve been harassing us for a long time, forcing money from students in the South Gate neighborhood.
They used to make students make bank transfers all of the time. We urge the authorities to investigate this because it is becoming excessive.
Another student said the protest was to express their grievances over the pains students go through at the hands of thugs and cultists.
“I have been in this school for the past six years. There have always been cases of cultists and thugs harassing our students, especially the fresh ones. We have identified the culprits. We have informed the security agents and the school management but they are not doing anything. We are now going to protect ourselves. Police will make arrest but they are always released and returned with more force.”
In a reaction to the development, the Head of Media and Protocols Unit of the university, Adebanjo Adegbenro, said the students embarked on sensitisation march against actions of some persons living close to the South Gate who have been bullying some of the young students, saying there was no protest.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
