OAU Students Attack Corps Members, INEC Officials at Ad hoc Training Centre

Over 3,000 students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife in Osun State at the weekend unleashed mayhem on the members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)
and the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commissions (INEC) Ife zone at the INEC ad hoc training which commenced nationwide on Saturday in preparation for the forthcoming general elections.
www.odogwublog.com reports that the students who said they were protesting their non-inclusion to serve as electoral agents for the polls left many corps members with various degrees of injuries. They were equally said to have seized the identity card of a corps member who had queried the rationale behind their actions. The students claimed that the commission had asked them to apply for the job only to dump their application to the dustbin; an exercise which they said caused them monetary expenses processing relevant documents.

According to eyewitnesses, the angry students trooped into the venue of the training at Baptist Elementary School, Sabo, Ile-Ife with clubs, canes and other dangerous weapons attacking everybody at the venue and tearing the ad hoc staff lists and other important documents of the commission. They claimed that out of over 4, 000 thousand students who applied for the ad hoc staff, “only 50 students were enlisted,” querying the “enlisting of only serving and ex-corps members” by the commission.

A female corps member who sustained an injury during the ensuing stampede, although doesn’t want her name in print, told odogwuemekaodogwu.com that the angry students who also came with their private public address system ordered everybody out of the venue entirely, threatening fire and brimstone.

Hear her: “We all gathered this morning for the INEC ad hoc staff training billed to start today being Saturday. Low and below, about 3 to 4, 000 students of Obafemi Awolowo University stormed the venue of the training and started disrupting the activities; attacking everybody at the venue. They tore all the ad hoc staff lists including the ones pasted on the wall and other important INEC documents. They said that only 50 out of about 3, 000 or more of them who applied for the job were enlisted; querying why only serving and ex-corps members were on the list.”

“They blocked the entrance gate so that nobody or vehicle can go out or in. With their own public address system, they ordered all the corps members to leave the premises in a twinkling of an eye or expect ‘something’ very tragic. We all ran for our dear lives. Meanwhile, they claimed to have earlier protested at the INEC office but nobody spoke to them and they now decided to launch attacks here and disrupt the training” she added.

Another corps member who gave his name as Adeyemi Mike told our reporter that few of his colleagues who queried the rationale for the irascible actions had their identity cards seized by the angry undergrads. He added that the Local Government Inspector of NYSC for the zone swiftly ordered the corps members to return home to avoid violent clash which may cost lives and property adding that “the security men at the venue made frantic efforts to ensure that ‘corpers’ were protected.”

When contacted on the development, an official of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) who craved anonymity as “I’m not permitted to speak to the press” blamed the students’ actions on “hunger and unemployment in the land.” He also lashed out on the electoral body for “creating room for the students to cause troubles here. They seem unprepared for the task before them.”