NIGERIA’S first private ivory tower, the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, practically got rocked on Sunday, June 17, 2012, when some groups clashed in the institution, leaving in their trail injured students, damaged vehicles and heightened tension.
At first, news filtered that ex-militants and supposed cult group were involved in the clash, the echoes of which reverberated beyond the precincts of the university, and sent some other persons including students scampering for safety, as the entire university community was put on edge.
The two groups reportedly engaged each other in a free-for-all in which an entrance gate to the hostel area of the university was blocked, machetes were freely used and scores of assortment of vehicles were destroyed.
By Monday June 18, 2012, the identities of those involved in the clash became a bit clearer. And it turned out that members of the two rival groups were bona fide students of the university.
On the one hand were students sponsored by the federal government through the Office of the Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta Affairs/Chairman, President Amnesty Implementation Committee, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, while on the other hand were suspected student-cult members.
It was gathered that the clash broke out when the purported cult members burnt two cars belonging to one of the students on federal government scholarship simply identified as Eric.
This attack on Eric, a law student at the university, was said to have taken place between 4.am and 5.am that Sunday, a development which reportedly drew reprisal attack.
Indeed the frosty relationship among the students and these categories of students which had escalated with the Sunday clash, as learnt, had been brewing over time, as the suspected cult members were reported to be unhappy with the ex-militants who they purportedly alleged had been standing in the way of their nefarious activities.
A student of the institution who pleaded anonymity said because of the tight security on campus and the presence of the category of students now described as ex-militants for ease of reference within the school’s local parlance, members of some of the cult groups could no longer carry on with their usual businesses of attacks and robberies.
He claimed there was a speculation that a secret plan of the cult members had leaked and that it was an attempt to report this plan to the university authorities that provoked the ire of the suspected cult members who then launched an attack.
But the attack was met with a reprisal that shook the university: The ex-militants reportedly disarmed the suspected cult members of their machetes and then turned the heat on them.
The police and other security agencies were called in when the conflict broke out on Sunday to deal with the situation. By Monday morning more than a unit of policemen had been deployed to the campus to restore order and keep the peace.
A visit to the university apparently showed the resumption of normal life, as some students were writing their examinations, but not before some other students had left the campus presumably for safety.
However, the categorisation of the federal government sponsored students as ex-militants; the reports in a section of the media that people were killed in the clash; as well as the suggestion that the other students involved in the conflict were cult members did not go down well with the authorities of the institution.
Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Eghosa Osaghae said that same Monday that there was no cause for alarm, as the second semester examinations were in progress and staff and students were going about their normal activities. Osaghae said what happened was that in the early hours of last Sunday there was misunderstanding among students following damage to the vehicle of one of them outside the university campus in Okada Town, just as he pointed out that the development elicited “unwarranted reprisal that involved damage to other vehicles by the aggrieved students and friends.
He said contrary to some media reports, no life was lost in the actions of the students which “ended up in agitations and skirmishes,” while the students who sustained injuries, according to him, were promptly treated and discharged by the Igbinedion University Teaching Hospital. The vice chancellor further said the university was currently investigating the matter and addressing the incidence in accordance with its laid down rules and regulations.
Besides, Professor Osaghae rejected the categorisation of any of the institution’s students as ex-militants, saying “We are involved in the Youth Empowerment Programme of the Niger Delta Master Plan.” According to Professor Osaghae, “Under this programme, young men and women from that part of the country are to be trained at all levels; those that have qualifications to go to the university will go to the university; those that already have first degrees that can do master degrees are trained and so on; those that don’t have these qualifications as we understand it will go for other vocational training programmes.
“However, for those that have qualifications to enter university, they have been placed in universities across the country; these ones they don’t constitute students who are undergoing what you call amnesty training. The students that qualify who have been processed through JAMB, who have school certificate or A’ Level as the case may be were admitted individually as students, as regular students.”
An Ijaw youth leader, who was reported to have participated in the peace restoration process, Andrew Igiri, said the clash might have resulted from jealousy over federal government’s sponsorship of some of the students, and power tussle between the ex-militants who were now students and the supposed cult members.
Igiri called on the school authorities to respond to issues immediately they were reported to them, just as he urged security agencies to carry out proper investigation and not to take sides with anybody or group on issues. He also said the university authorities, students or members of the public should not see Ijaw youths in the university as militants or ex-militants.
The deputy commissioner of police in charge of Operations in Edo State, Suraj Umar said of the clash, “Nobody was beheaded.
Nobody was killed.
It is a disagreement among students. I am happy everything has come to normal.”
The clash necessitated the intervention of the Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta Affairs/Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Implementation Committee, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, who visited the university on Tuesday. Kuku described the confrontation as a “mere misunderstanding” among students which has been resolved.
Speaking with journalists shortly after a meeting with the students and authorities of the institution led by the vice chancellor, Professor Eghosa Osaghae, the presidential adviser reiterated Professor Osaghae’s as well as police’s positions that no life was lost in the unrest.
According to Kuku, “One very clear clarification must be made that we don’t have amnesty or ex –militants on this campus, I have said this several times am Mr. President’s Adviser on Niger Delta in term of development, be it youths or women.
The Ministry of Niger Delta handles intervention programmes on behalf of Mr. President in the region.
“I have come to meet with the university management over what I heard that happened on this campus. For me, it’s a mere misunderstanding and my students here are here on the platform of the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger-Delta, not amnesty programme.
They are not amnesty students. I am running an implementation of the Niger-Delta master plan and youths from the Niger Delta communities who seek and gain admission from Nigerian universities both home and abroad, seek scholarship and sponsorship from my office directly to Mr. President and when we get approval based on satisfaction of criteria, we give scholarship to such students.
“The ones you are seeing here are funded because they got satisfied on the criteria set out for federal government scholarship for students in this country particularly as it affects the Niger-Delta.
Being the one handling Niger-Delta affairs, I have deemed it necessary to come to see those students and because of the misconception spread by a section of the media that they are amnesty students. My amnesty trainees They are not students. My amnesty trainees are not the ones here. Those ones are in vocational programme in and outside of this country,” Kuku added.
