The authorities of the Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti have debunked claims by a parent that a cult group recruited from a polytechnic by a sister-in-law to the ABUAD Founder and Chancellor, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), carried out the February 7 riot in the institution.
The authorities said the claim by the parent was “false, malicious, deliberate and intended to damage the world reputation the university has built in its six years of existence.”
In a statement made available to The PUNCH, the legal luminary expressed surprise at the claims despite its earlier information made available on the riot.
He said, “The information supplied by the parent ran contrary to the position of the university as well as that of the parents that the February 7, 2016 riot by about 200 students out of a population of over 6,000 students was caused and orchestrated by students with poor academic performance.
“It is apposite to say that the university has a name and reputation which it has built over the years to protect and we will not allow anyone, under whatever guise ,to tarnish that name and reputation, both of which are so dear to us and millions of our admirers nationally and internationally.”
Babalola added that the unnamed parent’s claim was “full of lies and blatant falsehood.”
He argued that if the parent had his fact, he should name “my so-called sister-in-law,” adding that he did not have any destructive relation.
He argued that if the attackers were to be from another institution some of them would have been among the 200 students arrested by the police.
The Head, Corporate Affairs, Tunde Olofintila, told our correspondent that “all the students arrested were from the university.”
He added that there was no foreign student among them.
Meanwhile, a Chief Magistrate’s Court in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday adjourned hearing in the criminal case filed by the police against 31 students of the university till Friday (tomorrow).
The Chief Magistrate, Adesoji Adegboye, adjourned the matter following a request by the police prosecutor, Caleb Leramo, for the advice from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
He moved the application after the court resumed from a short stand down while waiting for the legal advice.
He said, “There is no legal advice yet. I will therefore request for a short adjournment, hoping the advice would have arrived by then.”
Earlier, the defence lawyer, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Abegunde, had requested for a short stand down of the matter.
She said, “The court can’t work at their pace, whatever they want to do, they better hurry up.”
Leramo hinted that there were peace moves between the parents and the authorities of ABUAD.
In a related development, the Parents/Teachers’ Consultative Forum of ABUAD has commended Babalola and the authorities of ABUAD for not closing down the institution following last week Sunday riot.
Speaking during a meeting with the management of the university in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday, the PTCF’s Vice-President, Prof. Olusegun Oladimeji, argued that closing down the university after the riot would have led to a disruption in the university’s academic calendar.
Oladimeji added that it was the unwarranted closure of many public universities that caused what ABUAD went through last Sunday because many students had spent between seven and eight years to run a four-year programme.
He urged other institutions of higher education to take a cue from Babalola’s “uncommon maturity and understanding” by not closing down their institutions at the slightest provocation.
Earlier, Babalola had told Oladimeji that he had made up his mind not to impose financial sanctions on all the students, thereby unjustifiably making the innocent to pay for the sin of the guilty.
“I have made up my mind not to impose financial sanctions on all the students as it is the practice in some other institutions where issues like this had taken place in the past.
“It has to be appreciated that those behind the Sunday night disturbances were less than 200 out of a total student population of well over 6,000. It will therefore be unfair, unjust and inequitable for me and/or the university authorities to ask every student to pay for the sin and misconduct of just a few of them.
“If I do it, God will punish me. But I know for sure that the Almighty God that provided the resources for me to establish the university is still very much on the throne. He will provide the money to replace and/or repair the facilities the rampaging students damaged.
“I established this university for a purpose: to make a difference, to show how a university should be run and to make the students better than I am. But what a negligible few of the students have done will not and cannot shift over focus, neither will it discourage us. We have put our hands on the plough of quality and functional education, we will not look back.”
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