Members of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) who pressed for an investigation into the activities of cult groups at Yaba College of Technology have accused the institution’s authorities of witch-hunting them.
Some NANS leaders told Saharareporters that the management of Yaba College of Technology was planning a vindictive move against Fatima Adeyinka Salau, the public relations officer of the Lagos State chapter of NANS’ Joint Campus Committee (JCC). Ms. Salau had recently granted an interview to SaharaTV in which she detailed her group’s efforts to rid the campus of cultism.
In the interview (available here http://saharareporters.tv/yaba-college-of-technology-harbours-finances-cult-gangs-says-student/), Ms. Salau alleged that members of cult gangs brazenly descend on innocent students on the campus and brag about having the backing of the school’s management. She disclosed that violent acts by various cult gangs had soared on the campus.
The student leader suggested that cult gangs who largely control the institution, dictating what students wear, how students move, and other sundry relationships on campus.
She also accused the college authorities of impeding efforts by students to check cultism on the campus, adding that the school had set up a diversionary committee to interrogate squatters in the hostels instead of investigating cult members.
Sources at Yaba Tech told Saharareporters that the college’s management was livid about the interview and was moving to gag Ms. Salau. Meanwhile, added our sources, cult gangs continue their assaults on students.
SaharaReporters learned that a suspected cult member recently attacked an ND2 student of the Banking and Finance department. The victim, identified simply as Nonso, reportedly sustained severe injuries. Eyewitnesses told Saharareporters that there was no prior fracas or relationship between the culprit and the student he attacked.
Following the unwarranted attack, irate students seized the campus in a one-day protest, demanding an end to cult activities on the campus.
Instead, an executive member of the Student Union Government at the college told our correspondent that the cult gangs had become more emboldened in their violent acts.
“They rape, they rob and they attack innocent students,” the SUG member said. He also stated that the security networks of the Cadet and Man O’ War on the campus had weakened against the notorious cult members.
Another member of the SUG suggested that alleged cult members have now infiltrated the security outfits.
“Some of them in the Man O’ War are even cult members,” another SUG executive alleged.
Ms. Salau had told SaharaTV that the security outfits were often discouraged because of their awareness that the cult gangs enjoy the hardly veiled backing of college authorities. She said the Cadet and Man O’ War were doing their best, but disclosed that cult members arrested by them are quickly released by the police.
“They also boast that management is behind them and [that management] pays them,” Ms. Salau told our interviewer. She alleged that the school’s rector, Mrs. Kudirat Ladipo, was “trying to be a mother” to all students rather than flushing out the cult members.
During the student body’s one-day protest, they had demanded that cult members, who are allegedly known to the management, be identified and rusticated. The students also insisted that the management should take full responsibility for the medical treatment of the student viciously attacked by an alleged cult member.
The students had also demanded that none of the demonstrators who protested to draw attention to issues of student safety may be victimized. The college authorities had pledged to meet the demands.
A few weeks later, the college released a controversial list of so-called cult members. However, students rejected the list, calling it manipulative, and adding that it was populated with names of innocent students while real cult members were left out.
The management also set up a panel to investigate the listed students. However, the college soon told students that the focus was no longer on cult members but about students who squat in hostels or buy spaces from those who were originally allotted them.
This about-face led students to accuse the management of devising a plan to victimize Ms. Salau for publicizing the cult crisis at Yaba College of Technology.
A lecturer at the college told SaharaReporters that the rector, Mrs. Ladipo, was considering ordering that Ms. Salau’s academic records be withheld as a punishment for her SaharaTV appearance.
“Mrs. Kudirat Ladipo and others in authority are angry that Fatima exposed what they are trying to manage,” said the lecturer.
However, Omobayo Raheem, the college’s Dean of Student affairs, this morning denied that the rector or anybody at the college was after Ms. Salau for her SaharaTV interview. “How can we step down her result when we have not even investigated her? It is not true. The management has not even summoned her yet. How then could we have that conclusion?” the dean stated.
Several students confirmed that statements by Ms. Salau in the interview were correct.
“To deny what she said is to deny that there are cult members on campus. It is the same as denying the existence of the incidence for which we protested a few weeks ago,” a student of the Arts faculty told our correspondent.
“Well, it’s just that nobody wants his face to be marked by either the cult guys or the management, but everyone knows that all she said is true,” another student said.
But curiously, a student from the accounting department told our correspondent that the rector, Mrs. Ladipo, was maintaining the cult guys for use in upcoming elections. He suggested the management would do anything to keep the cult gangs.
“The rector doesn’t want to lose those boys. Her husband is a politician and she even became a rector by his influence. Her husband needs those boys for 2015, and that is why his wife is helping keep thugs on the campus for the sake of 2015,” added the student.
Disappointed by the college management’s “manipulative panel,” students wrote to the authorities demanding the panel’s dissolution. The students are insisting on a new panel composed of students, members of cadets and the Man O’ War as well as representatives of the school administration.
Our correspondent was unable to reach the rector as her mobile line was switched off. The new President of Students Union Government (SUG) in the institution, Mr. Salvador, could also not be reached for his comment.
December 26, 2015, 07:00:39 PM