Management of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife in Osun State, has closed down the school “until further notice” following protests that rocked the varsity in the aftermath of a student’s death.
In a statement on Friday evening, the Public Relations Officer (PRO), Abiodun Olarewaju, said the move was aimed at preventing the breakdown of order as the students, who were protesting over the death of a Year 4 student, Adesina Omowumi Aishat, blocked the Ife/Ibadan and Ife/Ede roads.
He said;
Therefore, having exhausted all necessary avenues to call the students to order and allow normalcy to return to the campus and its environs, the authorities of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, have accordingly closed down the school until further notice. This is to forestall further breakdown of law and order.
In view of this, all students are hereby directed to vacate their halls of residence and the Campus latest by 12:00 noon on Saturday, 2nd October 2021.
The swearing-in ceremony of newly-elected Students’ Union members has also been suspended, the statement added.
It added;
In the meantime, the University management has put in place the machinery to unravel the circumstances surrounding the immediate and remote cause(s) of the crisis.
Narrating how the late 24-year-old Aishat died, Olarewaju explained that the student of the Department of Foreign Languages;
Reported to the Health Centre with signs and symptoms of a severe infection. She was promptly treated with some drugs prescribed and asked to report back as an out-patient. She reported back to the Health Centre in the morning of Thursday, 30th September 2021. Upon examination, she was referred to the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital for further management where she regrettably died on Thursday 30th September 2021.
Olarewaju, while condoling with the parents, “the parents, friends, colleagues and the entire students of the University on this sad loss”, prayed for the repose of her soul.
Background
Students of the university on Friday staged a peaceful protest over the death of Miss Adesina.
The late Adesina was said to have died at Seventh Day Adventist Hospital, Ile-Ife, where she was referred to by the university’s health centre.
Following the death on Friday, the students blocked the university’s main gate in protest.
Protesting students accused the university’s health centre of poor management of Miss Adesina’s case, and for allegedly delaying in its response when the deceased presented herself to the centre.
Meanwhile, reports by various media platforms including Humangle earlier on Friday indicated that the late Miss Adesina was an asthmatic patient who had gone to the health centre to complain of a sore throat.
She was reportedly given an anti-malaria medication which the late Miss Adesina’s friends confirmed “did not work” for the deceased noting the pains had persisted for three days before she was rushed back to the health centre on Thursday.
Another source who did not want to be named for fear of victimisation told Humangle that Miss Adeshina could not be attended to because doctors were on strike.
The source said;
We were told by officials at the clinic that doctors are on strike and they cannot even refer her to OAU teaching hospital. The best they could do was to refer her to Seventh Day hospital.
