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After 4 Years, OAU Sets To Reinstall Suspended Students Union

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The Obafemi Awolowo University management has resolved to resuscitate the institution’s student union which was suspended barely four years ago.

Naija News understands that the institution’s SU was dissolved on November 6, 2017, following a disagreement between the Vice President and the Director of Socials which lead to physical combats, the use of broken bottles by the supporters of the duo.

It was gathered that the SUG President beat up the Speaker on June 29 and 30, while the Speaker’s supporters, in retaliation, attacked the President on September 15, 2017.

In its bid to forestall the unruly behaviour of the SUG which violates the order of the university, the OAU management decided to suspend the union.

Naija News understands that the school management also condemned, in strong terms, the forceful release of students under investigation from Police custody on October 6, and the unwarranted vandalization of people’s vehicles particularly that of the Ekiti State Chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists and members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).

However, the OAU management in a statement released by the institution’s Dean, Division of Student Affairs, Prof Isiaka Aransi, on Monday, April 12, announced plans to resuscitate the longtime suspended SU.

The statement reads in part; “It has come to the knowledge of the University Management that the National Association of Nigerian students Zone D is planning to stage a protest in respect of “resuscitation of Students’ Union in OAU.

“The university management wishes to inform all students that prior to the commencement of COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, OAU had taken steps to ensure that Students’ Union was resuscitated on two different occasions but the processes were truncated due to the activities of some group of students on our university campus.

“Meanwhile, protest or no protest, the university management has already determined to reinstate the suspended Students’ Union before the end of this current 2019/2020 academic session.

“In recognition of the right of freedom of association and assembly as well as the right to ensure that students play their roles actively in decision-making processes as one of the major stakeholders in the university, the management, through the Dean of Student Affairs, took another step in January this year 2021 to present another proposal to the university senate with a view to ensuring that the students union was resuscitated.

“Accordingly, the University Senate considered the proposal at its virtual meeting in January 2021, and in its wisdom advised that resuscitation of students union being an exclusive preserve of students should not be executed virtually while the students were not on the ground in the university.

“The University management hereby wishes to inform all students (and other stakeholders) that as soon as all students return to campus fully during the Rain Semester of the current academic session, machinery will be put in place to set the ball rolling concerning the resuscitation of the students union in OAU.”

Meanwhile, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP has revealed necessary steps that must be taken first by the federal government before the union can call off its industrial action.

Naija News recalls that the union announced the shutting down of all polytechnics across the country on April 6, 2021, protesting against the government’s inertia towards the implementation of its demands.