Campuses are becoming the targets of robbers who operate with sophisticated weapons. WALE AJETUNMOBI writes that students are worried by the development.
EVERYWHERE was quiet. You could even cut through the silence with a knife. The reason was not far-fetched. The students were writing an exam. It was Thursday, November 10, last year, and the scene was the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State. Then, all of a sudden, all hell broke loose. Time was some minutes past noon.
It was a robbery. As guns boomed, the deafening sound shattered the campus peace. The robbers came in a Hummer Jeep and two space buses. They were armed with explosives. Within 30 minutes, they had raided five banks. They blew up the security doors at the banks’ entrances with dynamites and then rained bullets on everything and everyone on sight.
By the time peace returned to the scene, three students – two of whom were in their final year - were dead; 10 others, mostly students, were wounded. Vehicles parked within the banks were riddled with bullets.
The attack occurred when members of the OOU Senate were to meet, but the meeting was cancelled. No arrest was made, but in a bid to allay students’ fear, the police said: “We are on top of the situation.”
Three weeks later, the campus was plunged into mourning again. It was the first day in December. A group of armed robbers attacked another bank in Sagamu. Perhaps basking in the euphoria of their successful operation, the robbers shot sporadically as they moved from Sagamu to Ago-Iwoye. They stopped at the campus gate and shot at some students. Leye Balogun, a budding hip-hop artiste and final year student of Chemical Engineering, was hit. He died on the spot.
These incidents have raised security concerns, especially on a campus that is supposed to be free of such violence. The students castigated the police for not living up to expectation. They called for an overhaul of the security system to pave the way “for fresh people who would take the matter seriously.”
Perhaps, this might have informed the students hailing the appointment of Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar as Acting Inspector General Police. Having performed creditably in Lagos and Kwara as Commissioner of Police, students said his coming was a sign that the security nightmare on campuses would disappear.
But the spate of robberies on campuses proved them wrong. Penultimate Wednesday, the twin attacks on the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) and Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, jolted the students. Seven heavily-armed robbers invaded the sleepy campus of Babcock. An eyewitness said though no student was hurt the robbers freely used rocket launchers, dynamites and sub-machine guns to raid new generation banks on the campus.
“It is an unbelievable sight. I don’t know how the boys came in. They carried big rocket launchers and dynamites. Before anyone knew what was happening, they swooped on us and asked all of us to lie down.
“One of them even slapped me because I wanted to look at his face. I cannot say the actual amount they carted away, but a rough estimate will be millions of naira,” a worker in one of the banks said.
On the same day, a bank in front of UNIPORT main gate was attacked. A student, who was using the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) at the time of the robbery, was shot and later died in the hospital. However, the police spokesman, Ben Ugwuegbulam, said he could not confirm if any death was recorded in the incident, adding that “only one person was injured.”
For now, banks in Ogun State have remained shut even as students continue to groan over their inability to withdraw money. Those at OOU are worried over how to pay their school fees to beat the deadline; they usually paid through the banks. Many studying in tertiary institutions in the state now travel miles to nearby cities to withdraw cash, despite its attendant risk.
“I am too scared of the campus now,” said a student of Babcock who simply identified herself as Henrietta.
She added: “The incidence of campus robbery is growing in Ogun State and it appears no one is safe because robbers invaded the Government House in broad day light. So, how do we say we are safe on a campus where there is no security?”
Mary Adeyemi, a final year student of Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), Ijebu-Ode, told CAMPUSLIFE on phone that she could not withdraw the N15,000 sent by her parents three weeks ago.
“I don’t have any money with me as I am talking to you and banks have not opened for operation in the past three weeks. I don’t want to risk my life travelling to Lagos or Ibadan to withdraw money. This is bad and government must look into this issue. Or maybe we should plead with the robbers to leave campuses out in their operations,” Mary said in anger.
Opeyemi Adenuga, a student of OOU, said: “I don’t think it is right to call on government to secure the campus because the reports of bombings in the country have shown that they cannot protect themselves against rising insecurity. Which police are we calling, the same one that cannot rein in Boko Haram?”
Oladele Akande, another student, said: “If we should wait for the police to come to our rescue, we will surely wait till the end of time because the robbers will keep on changing location and police will keep on staying at the wrong place.”
EVERYWHERE was quiet. You could even cut through the silence with a knife. The reason was not far-fetched. The students were writing an exam. It was Thursday, November 10, last year, and the scene was the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State. Then, all of a sudden, all hell broke loose. Time was some minutes past noon.
It was a robbery. As guns boomed, the deafening sound shattered the campus peace. The robbers came in a Hummer Jeep and two space buses. They were armed with explosives. Within 30 minutes, they had raided five banks. They blew up the security doors at the banks’ entrances with dynamites and then rained bullets on everything and everyone on sight.
By the time peace returned to the scene, three students – two of whom were in their final year - were dead; 10 others, mostly students, were wounded. Vehicles parked within the banks were riddled with bullets.
The attack occurred when members of the OOU Senate were to meet, but the meeting was cancelled. No arrest was made, but in a bid to allay students’ fear, the police said: “We are on top of the situation.”
Three weeks later, the campus was plunged into mourning again. It was the first day in December. A group of armed robbers attacked another bank in Sagamu. Perhaps basking in the euphoria of their successful operation, the robbers shot sporadically as they moved from Sagamu to Ago-Iwoye. They stopped at the campus gate and shot at some students. Leye Balogun, a budding hip-hop artiste and final year student of Chemical Engineering, was hit. He died on the spot.
These incidents have raised security concerns, especially on a campus that is supposed to be free of such violence. The students castigated the police for not living up to expectation. They called for an overhaul of the security system to pave the way “for fresh people who would take the matter seriously.”
Perhaps, this might have informed the students hailing the appointment of Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar as Acting Inspector General Police. Having performed creditably in Lagos and Kwara as Commissioner of Police, students said his coming was a sign that the security nightmare on campuses would disappear.
But the spate of robberies on campuses proved them wrong. Penultimate Wednesday, the twin attacks on the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) and Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, jolted the students. Seven heavily-armed robbers invaded the sleepy campus of Babcock. An eyewitness said though no student was hurt the robbers freely used rocket launchers, dynamites and sub-machine guns to raid new generation banks on the campus.
“It is an unbelievable sight. I don’t know how the boys came in. They carried big rocket launchers and dynamites. Before anyone knew what was happening, they swooped on us and asked all of us to lie down.
“One of them even slapped me because I wanted to look at his face. I cannot say the actual amount they carted away, but a rough estimate will be millions of naira,” a worker in one of the banks said.
On the same day, a bank in front of UNIPORT main gate was attacked. A student, who was using the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) at the time of the robbery, was shot and later died in the hospital. However, the police spokesman, Ben Ugwuegbulam, said he could not confirm if any death was recorded in the incident, adding that “only one person was injured.”
For now, banks in Ogun State have remained shut even as students continue to groan over their inability to withdraw money. Those at OOU are worried over how to pay their school fees to beat the deadline; they usually paid through the banks. Many studying in tertiary institutions in the state now travel miles to nearby cities to withdraw cash, despite its attendant risk.
“I am too scared of the campus now,” said a student of Babcock who simply identified herself as Henrietta.
She added: “The incidence of campus robbery is growing in Ogun State and it appears no one is safe because robbers invaded the Government House in broad day light. So, how do we say we are safe on a campus where there is no security?”
Mary Adeyemi, a final year student of Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), Ijebu-Ode, told CAMPUSLIFE on phone that she could not withdraw the N15,000 sent by her parents three weeks ago.
“I don’t have any money with me as I am talking to you and banks have not opened for operation in the past three weeks. I don’t want to risk my life travelling to Lagos or Ibadan to withdraw money. This is bad and government must look into this issue. Or maybe we should plead with the robbers to leave campuses out in their operations,” Mary said in anger.
Opeyemi Adenuga, a student of OOU, said: “I don’t think it is right to call on government to secure the campus because the reports of bombings in the country have shown that they cannot protect themselves against rising insecurity. Which police are we calling, the same one that cannot rein in Boko Haram?”
Oladele Akande, another student, said: “If we should wait for the police to come to our rescue, we will surely wait till the end of time because the robbers will keep on changing location and police will keep on staying at the wrong place.”
No comments:
Post a Comment