Recuperating
Vice President of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Students Union,
Miss Jacob Tosin Grace has given her own account of the violent clash at
the Central Executive Meeting of the Union on September 6th, 2017
during which she was alleged to have been involved in a fight with
Social Director, Adedayo Emmanuel.
Our correspondent who went to the Seventh Day hospital, Lagere where
Grace is receiving treatment met her in Ward four of the hospital,
lying on the hospital bed with bruises on her face, breasts and
supported with a Plaster of Paris.
She said she has been avoiding the Student Union’s building due to
the threats and harassments from several persons but decided to attend
the meeting to discuss the money disbursed to the union.
“A meeting was convened for members of the executive council and the
meeting ought to hold by 5pm but didn’t start until 7pm and it held in
the President’s office. Before the meeting, I had not been going to the
Students’ Union Building because there have been threats against me-
both sexual and oral from persons I do not want to specifically mention.
“We discussed the N3.8 million subvention the management released to
the union and the issues raised at the meeting were basically hinged on
capital projects which I have been vehemently against. In fact, I was
against the purchase of the bus bought by the Union president a while
ago and I did release a statement dated 1st of May, 2017 condemning the
act.”
At the meeting several items on the agenda was discussed. Some of
them bothered on construction of relaxation centre, construction of a
staircase along the school’s Architecture studio-Alumni hall axis, and
refurbishment of the union’s library. However, issues of the packages of
the freshmen which were proposed at the rate of 1.4 million were
rejected. Grace said since the Union President had failed to initially
disburse funds for her concerning the freshers packages for the newly
admitted students, she stood up and asked to be excused.
“I was tired at the meeting because I had an exam that morning and
fatigue was setting in. I wanted to take my leave but the Director of
Socials, Adedayo Afolabi Emmanuel, (Lamba) stood at the door preventing
me from going out. Lamba and I have not been talking for months and this
is not unconnected to the alleged bus saga and plans by some executive
council members to facilitate my suspension based on the flimsy
allegations that I had plans to impeach the president.”
“I pushed him out of the way telling him I wanted to leave; but he
slapped me, beat me, hit me on the breasts, head-butted me, and tore my
cloth. None out of the remaining six executive council members came to
my rescue although the only person absent at the meeting was the
Assistant Secretary General. They held me and my clothes were already
torn. I was looking for an instrument of self-defense and somebody
handed me a bottle.
“I hit the bottle on the table, it didn’t break, I hit it on the
floor and it did break. I picked up a piece of it to scare Lamba but the
Union PRO, Okediji Simon collected the bottle from me and Lamba beat me
again for the second time.”
Grace who is still nursing several bruises from the wounds inflicted
on her in the fight stated that no member of the executive was willing
to help her or stop Adedayo Emmanuel from inflicting more injuries on
her until the Speaker of the House rescued her.The Welfare director left me and the remaining CEC members inside
after I broke the bottle while the Union PRO, Zuma collected the broken
bottle from me though I never planned on using it. I was shouting until
the Speaker of the Parliament forced himself inside and took me out of
the president’s office. I couldn’t support myself anymore and was
getting unconscious, so I was rushed to the University Health centre.
“On getting to the Health centre, I could not be attended to because I
needed a security report. I ought to be transferred to OAU Teaching
hospital but they couldn’t do that because their doctors were on strike,
so I was rushed down here (Seventh day Adventist hospital) with an
ambulance on Wednesday. I was taken to the casualty Ward at first, then I
was moved to this Ward (Ward four). I had a scan done on my left
shoulder, chest and the doctor told me that they would do a skull x-ray
too,” She added.
She said that the President and some others came to the hospital on
Wednesday claiming they wanted to see her at all cost and when the
doctors told them she needed rest, they threatened to make the
hospitable ungovernable.
Stating that she still has pains on the throat, neck, breast, head
and legs, she called for legal actions to be taken against Lamba and
other union officials that watched him beat her being beaten.
The Director of Socials while speaking with our correspondent on
phone confirmed reports that they had a meeting on the 5th of September
on what to use the backlog of N3.8m the school management released for.
“We had a meeting on what to use it the backlog the management
released for and different people came with different ideas although the
three most important were picked. All executive council members were
present at the meeting except for the Assistant Secretary-General
(Siewen) who had travelled home. The VP was saying that we should give
her a kind of amount for freshmen’s package, but we told her that
freshmen’s packages can wait and that freshmen can collect their
packages anytime. I too was angry too because my proposal was turned
down. She was leaving and asked whether she would get the money or not
and I blocked her when she was leaving and told her to calm down.”
“Immediately, she shouted at me. She slapped me four times and she
ordered me to leave her way. She was following me about. This got me
angry. Before I could get another round of slaps; I choked her neck,
held her cloth, but they separated us and when they separated us, she
found a bottle. She hit it on the table, it didn’t break, she then
smashed it on the floor, took the broken part and was charging towards
me. I was close to the exit; I studied her, held her hands and we began
to struggle. She wanted to stab me but ended up hurting me with the
bottle. Blood came out of my hand and I head-butted her more than twice.
”
The Speaker of the Union’s Parliament promised that the parliament
would take action as regards the matter; he told our correspondent that
the Parliament would sanction all officers involved in the matter for
discussing how to spend money which is a parliamentary issue, and for a
fight occurring in the President’s office without anyone stopping them.
“I saw students banging the door of the president’s office but to my
greatest surprise the President and Financial secretary came out of the
office claiming that they had a meeting ongoing but I could hear cries
and shouts of a lady inside. I forced my way inside and I saw the VP
with torn clothes, she was looking tattered and battered. I got a key
and took her out through the secretary-general’s office, I also did get
her a shirt to cover her semi-nude body, she then fell on the floor. We
got a bike and she was taken to the university’s health centre.”
All efforts to reach the President of OAU students’ union, the
secretary-General and the Dean of the school’s Division of Students’
Affairs proved abortive.