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On Wednesday, November 1, Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) agents arrested some students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State, during an off-campus midnight raid.
Here’s all we know about the situation that’s already trending under the hashtag #FreeOAUStudents.
What happened?
On Wednesday, November 1, some students of OAU took to X (formerly Twitter) to notify the public about a midnight raid by EFCC officials. According to the accounts, the officials stormed Fine Touch and Superb Hostels in Oduduwa Estate, Ile-Ife, at midnight. The students reportedly thought they were kidnappers at first.
“When people were asleep, EFCC raided Fine Touch Hostel in Oduduwa, arrested over 40 male students and drove their cars away! What type of stupid oppression is this?” one X user tweeted.
When people were asleep, EFCC raided Fine Touch Hostel in Oduduwa, arrested over 40 male students and drove their cars away! What type of stupid oppression is this??!
The students were taken to the Ibadan office of the anti-graft agency, and their properties were confiscated.
OAU’s student union condemns arrest
Shortly after the incident, the OAU students’ union issued a statement on X, confirming and condemning the unlawful arrest of students.
“We strongly condemn the recent unjust arrest and harassment of our fellow students by members of the EFCC @officialEFCC in the odd hours of today, Nov 1st, 2023. This action is unacceptable and goes against the principles of justice and due process.”
The union noted its support for the aggrieved students and called on authorities to carry out thorough investigation.
We strongly condemn the recent unjust arrest and harassment of our fellow students by members of the EFCC @officialEFCC in the odd hours of today, Nov 1st, 2023. This action is unacceptable and goes against the principles of justice and due process.#OAUTwitter#FreeOAUStudentspic.twitter.com/743d9r3i1G
Some videos circulating on social media indicate that students of the institution have mobilised and visited the EFCC’s office in Ibadan, demanding the release of their colleagues. The #FreeOAUStudents hashtag is also trending on X.
A spokesperson of the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, confirmed the arrest of 69 “internet fraud suspects”. He said the anti-graft agency’s Ibadan zonal office acted on intelligence that the OAU students were involved in internet crime.
According to him, items recovered from the students include 190 mobile phones, 40 laptops and cars, among others. Oyewale said the students will be charged to court.
“The suspects have made useful statements to the EFCC and will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.”
What about the university’s management?
OAU’s PRO, Abiodun Olanrewaju, said the school management is still investigating to determine how many of the arrested individuals are their students.
“We want to be sure that our students are not unduly harassed or intimidated nor abused. The management has mandated us to go to Ibadan and find out because the welfare of students is important to us.
“We want to go and see by ourselves so that we can come back and give the management necessary feedback. We are just going there now. It is not only our students that are outside Ife, so we wouldn’t want a situation where people will say all those who were arrested are our students whereas maybe some of them are not our students. We want to know who we want to fight for, who we want to defend and protect.”
This is a developing story.
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In May 2022, The Cable reported 391 recorded mob killings in Nigeria in the last four years. The recent lynching of an Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) student has unfortunately increased this tally.
What was his crime?
Okoli Ahinze, a 400-level student, was accused of stealing a phone in the Awolowo Hall of Residence on the school’s premises.
According to a statement by Awo Hall Leadership, Ahinze didn’t just steal the phone but also used the bank app to make transactions and solicit funds from the victim’s contacts.
What happened next?
After hearing the news of the stolen phone, a mob gathered and severely beat the young man. He was then moved to another location for his safety.
According to a Twitter user, Baron Chymaker (@chymaker), it is alleged that the lynching followed an unwritten practice in the school tagged “Maximum Scientific Shishi.”
The term describes a code name for torturing students that commit an offence. Accusations trailed the Awo Hall Chairman Badiora Timilehin and his social director Omiskin Seye who were alleged moderators of the lynching.
Later in the afternoon, he had to be moved to the OAU Teaching Hospital when his health started to decline. But by then, it was too late.
Have legal actions been taken?
So far, none has been taken yet.
The President of the Great Ife Student Union, Folahan Olawiyola, released a statement promising that the union would work with the university authorities and law enforcement agencies to ensure the perpetrators face justice.
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Students in Nigerian universities have stories to tell, but hardly anyone to tell them to. For our new weekly series, Aluta and Chill, we are putting the spotlight on these students and their various campus experiences.
When you think back to your hostel days in the university, what do you remember? Your roommates? The times you broke the rules and got away with it? The struggle of coexisting with hundreds of strangers?
Students get into the university and realise that for the duration of their studies, the hostels are their new homes. It might as well be because that’s where they spend the bulk of their time. Therefore, it’s only natural that these places are a hub of different stories. For this week’s Aluta and Chill, I got a couple of Obafemi Awolowo University students to talk about a memorable hostel experience.
Dunmomi – Got an unwanted roommate
I’ve never been a fan of campus fellowships. Even before I came into the university, I was told to attend a “real church” because fellowships take more time. I was in my room minding my business when some fellowship people came to the hostel to evangelise. One of my roommates is a muslim and when one of these fellowship sisters found out, she turned her attention to her. On the first day, she spent hours in our room preaching to her We didn’t mind because we thought it was a one-time thing.
It was not.
She came the following day and the same thing happened. Was that the last time she came? No! She made it her life mission to convert my friend. This dear sister literally made our room hers. At some point, she began to bring food when she was coming to visit. And if we cooked, she would ask if she could eat out of it. Her dedication was everything but we no longer found it cute. If this sister knew she was no longer welcome, she didn’t show it. And no, she didn’t stop coming until the session ended and we had to leave the hostel. Basically, my roomie and I got an extra roommate we didn’t ask for,
Joy – Uhm, bedbugs
I was in my first year and I loved reading alone. Besides, I found it stressful to walk from my hostel to the library or the department to study. There was a common room in the hostel that was rarely used. Word around the hostel was that it was infested with bedbugs, but I didn’t mind. At the time, I didn’t even know what bedbugs looked like. So, the common room was my go-to place for studying.
I was making last-minute preparations for an exam I had the following day when I saw an insect on the page of my textbook. I suspected that it might be a bedbug and I called my roommate’s attention to it. When I squished it and saw blood, I knew that I had brought these things into the room. I couldn’t sleep that night as they began their reign of terror. They had taken over every inch of the room before morning.
After I finished writing my exam, I brought Sniper, diluted it with kerosene and fumigated the room. It took care of the bedbugs, but the smell sent us out of the room; we had to leave the room for a few weeks. In those weeks, I had to share a 2 ½ inch bed with a friend.
Daniel – Someone broke into his room
When I was in my first year and second year, people broke into my rooms and stole my roommates’ phones. However, on both occasions, I was out studying.
My luck ran out last year.
I watched a movie on my phone until midnight when I stopped because I had to be in church early the next morning. My phone was on the verge of dying, so I plugged it in and kept it under my bed. I made sure that I properly locked the two doors leading into the room.
Around 4:30 AM, one of my roommates woke me up and asked for my phone. I thought they wanted to get movies from me, so I dismissed him and directed him to check for it under the bed. But he kept nudging me to stand up. When he told me that everyone in the room couldn’t find their phones, I sprang up and quickly checked where I kept my phone. It wasn’t there.
I was in the denial stage. I turned the whole area upside-down thinking I’d kept my phone someplace safer, but I didn’t find this thing. Neither could my roommates find theirs. We all thought it was a joke at first — that someone was playing a prank on us. As every hour passed, reality dawned on us. Someone had broken into our rooms and made away with our phones.
Unfortunately, I had an important test in two days and all of my study material was on the phone. Bruh! I was lucky enough to have a friend with two phones. He borrowed me one to use until I wrote the test.
Rotifa – Almost evicted from the hostel
There are four male hostels in my school, so the accommodation struggle is real. I bought bed-space from a guy in a hostel reserved for penultimate and final year students. For context, I was in my first year and shouldn’t have been in that hostel. To play it safe, I collected his hostel ID card and replaced his picture with mine, so I could have something to present to the hall officials whenever they asked.
I left the ID card in the hostel one morning and went to class. After my first class, I returned to the hostel to pick up something. That was the worst time for someone like me to be in the hostel. One of the hall wardens stopped me and requested for my ID card. I told him that it was in my room. It got real and he asked for my matriculation number. I had just gotten into the school and was still using my JAMB registration number. Not sure of what to say, I claimed that I didn’t remember it. Wrong answer because no one forgets their matric number.
The warden caught me in the lie, so he asked me to take him to my room. When we got there, he told me to remove my things from the room and leave the hostel. He was dead-serious about it and he made sure that I packed all my stuff out. It looked like I was going to be homeless.
When everyone saw how serious the situation was, they rallied behind me and begged the man. This went on for a few hours but the man wouldn’t have any of it. Luckily, out of the blues, something touched his heart and he relented. When he told me I could go, I dropped to my knees and thanked him profusely, throwing all the Yoruba words I knew into the mix. I had to return my stuff back into the room. Considering how worse the situation could have been, I had no complaints.
Ifeoluwa – Was caught with contraband
I’d just moved into the hostel for medical students. In my first month, two hall officials came to my room and saw a contraband – It was a hotplate. I actually thought it was allowed. In their mind, they had caught an erring student. One of them asked me to bring it, but I didn’t oblige. I apologized, trying to let them know that I had no idea that it shouldn’t have been in my room. One of them made to walk to my corner of the room and pick it herself. Instinctively, I jumped to my feet and rushed to pick it before she got there. From there, they made it seem like I was out to injure the woman.
They started to rant but I didn’t exchange words with them. When they were done, they promised to come back to deal with me. School sent us home because of the coronavirus pandemic, so they haven’t had the chance to deal with me.
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Can’t get enough Aluta and Chill?Check back every Thursday at 9 AM for a new episode. Find other stories in the series here.
The first year in a Nigerian university is always one hell of a ride. It’s like finally getting admitted into this prestigious club but then the club has more downs than ups. Here’s a list of some good and bad stuff year one students in Nigerian universities will relate to:
1. All the registration stress and queues.
The one thing you can be certain about in Nigerian universities is queues. There is always a queue, and it’s worse for year one students because they have a registration deadline to meet.
2. The wait for reg number.
You spend 2 weeks on campus and you are still stuck with your JAMB reg number.
3. Matriculation day excitement.
And of course, your parents come through Nigerian style. One cooler of rice, a cake in the university colors and crates of malt for your friends and fans
4. Priding in the fact that you now have “lectures” and not “lessons”.
Levels have changed yo.
5. Dropping the name of your university with shoulders high when neighbours ask.
Status successfully upgraded.
6. The struggle for accommodation.
The struggle is indeed real. Lagos state agents have got nothing on campus agents. It be your own students.
7. Attending classes back to back because you want to make first-class.
With 5.0 CGPA goals on your mind. In spite of the fact that you and WAEC did not really end on good terms.
Humbled by the questions that look like HD when the lectures were only taught in 2D. Also humbled by the mean invigilators and how much space they put between desks. And finally humbled by the fact that other people are already asking for an extra sheet and you can’t even bring yourself to understand what question one wants from you.
9. Checking your first exam results.
You go with your heart in your hands because. And on your way you probably get flashbacks from all the times you were sleeping like a bear when you should have been cramming definitions.
10. First embarrassment from a lecturer.
And you’re like, I thought the point of being a university student is that I will now be treated like an adult? Which one is “get out of my class”?
That’s 9 things most year one students in Nigerian Universities will relate to. Which struggle was the realest for you?
Sometimes Nigerian universities are fun, but most times they are episode after episode of pure hell. If you attended one then you can probably identify one of the reasons why you hated school on this list. Or two reasons, or three. Or maybe the entire list is your story too.
1. There’s ALWAYS a queue.
While Lagosians are spending half their lifetime roasting in traffic, Nigerian students are spending there’s on queues. There’s a long queue at the banks, another one at the bursar’s office, and another at the bus stop, and at the toilet, at the restaurant too, at the Wi-Fi zone, there’s even a queue for your crush. And the queues make it a point to move at snail speed.
2. WhatsApp groups were invented in Nigerian universities.
There’s a WhatsApp group for everything; for every faculty, for every department, for every level in the department, for people who have forgotten their registration numbers, for people who have issues, for the people planning a party and even for people attending the party.
3. Assignments.
You think nursery, primary and secondary schools have all given you enough assignments for one lifetime but you get into the university and realize you are just starting.
4. Blackouts ergo water scarcity on campus.
Just when you have a deadline to submit an assignment the blackouts start and the water scarcity always almost follows suit. And you can best believe the university management is hardly ever in a hurry to fix the issue.
5. Impromptu tests a.k.a Tear out a sheet of paper.
The absolute worst kind of surprise. And lecturers loooooove to see it happen. Don’t they know that nobody reads until the exam time table is published?
6. Strikes.
At first you think it’s not so bad. Its like going on holiday before holiday, but then the strike stretches into months and you start wondering if you’ll ever see your B.SC in this life.
Let’s start from 2003 when Eedris Abdulkareem released ‘Mr Lecturer’, a song about Bimbo Owoyemi, a female student at an unnamed Nigerian university who was being sexually harassed by her lecturer, Olayemi Olatunji.
In the final scene of the music video, Bimbo gets a reprieve from the trauma when the lecturer is arrested. Unfortunately, this is the gap between fiction and reality: hundreds of female Nigerian students who are sexually harassed by their lecturers do not get any form of justice and are threatened into silence.
Fast forward to 2018 when the sex for grades conversation began to make waves for the first time in recent years. An audio conversation between a lecturer at Obafemi Awolowo University, Professor Richard Akindele, and his student, Monica Osagie, got out and set off a slippery slope. In the recording, Richard was heard demanding a five-round sex marathon from Monica. As she told CNN, the professor of Accounting gave her two options: sleep with him, or fail the class. The OAU management dismissed him and later, a court sentenced him to 2 years in prison. According to the judge, Justice Maureen Onyetenu, the professor needed to be taught a lesson to serve as a deterrent to those who abuse their authority. He was released on March 19, 2020.
That felt like a major breakthrough, but as time would tell, Akindele’s fate didn’t serve as a deterrent to other lecturers who got off on sexually harassing their students. In October 2019, A BBC Africa Eye investigation into cases of harassment, led by Nigerian journalist and filmmaker Kiki Mordi, exposed lecturers at the University of Lagos and University of Ghana. Boniface Igbeneghu, who was one of the lecturers exposed in this documentary was suspended from his duties as a senior lecturer by the UNILAG management.
The documentary and the set of actions that followed its release, including the re-introduction of the Sex for Marks bill, a legislation that would ensure the incarceration of lecturers guilty of sexual misconduct for up to 14 years, seemed like a step in the right direction. However, it hasn’t been passed and ASUU is currently fighting it. This brought with it an uneasy question — Will these cases ever stop? An answer came a few months later.
On January 15, 2020, Premium Times reported another sex for grades story from Obafemi Awolowo University. This time, it was a lecturer at the Department of International Relations. His name? Bisi Olaleye.
According to the report, the student, Motunrayo Afolayan lodged a complaint at the university’s Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies, claiming that Mr Bisi Olaleye had allegedly failed her because she refused to sleep with him.
We don’t have all the details about the action the university took. But at the time of reporting this, Bisi Olaleye is still a lecturer at the university.
We spoke with three people who were students of Bisi Olaleye to reflect on their experiences with him and how he wasn’t the model lecturer. They asked to be anonymous for fears of retribution. The names have been changed to protect their identities.
“He used to do a “hand-to-the-neck” sign, as though he would strangle anyone who gave him trouble and his favourite thing to say at the time was “I will go for your guillotine”.
Edward: (International Relations, graduated in 2010): Bisi Olaleye was my course adviser in my first year at OAU. My first personal encounter with him was intense. I’d gone to his office to check my result because the department didn’t paste our results. When I got there, he didn’t hear what I said, so he snapped at me. I was very scared and from that moment, I developed this apprehension whenever I had to go to his office for anything. What added to my fear was the fact that he used to do a “hand-to-the-neck” sign, as though he would strangle anyone who gave him trouble. His favourite thing to say at the time was “I will go for your guillotine”
Bukola (History and International Relations, graduated in 2017): He taught me first when I was in 200 level. His aggressiveness was hard to miss. He said the most vulgar things, especially when he wanted to mock students.
Grace (History and International Relations, graduated in 2015): He did like to deride students, especially female students. He always said things like female students would fail because the only thing we knew how to do was to dress up and look pretty.
Edward: He abused the dynamics of the student-lecturer relationship. He did and said everything he could to keep us subjugated and retain his hold on us. In his presence, we had to overthink everything because nobody was sure what would upset him.
Bukola: An experience that stood out for me and showed that Mr Bisi would do all he could to get what he wanted was when Mr Bisi thought a guy in my class was dating a girl in my class — they were just friends. Mr Bisi called the guy to his office and threatened to fail him if he didn’t stop talking to the girl. The guy tried to explain, but Bisi wanted him to stop talking to her altogether and he was very serious about it. The guy had to be tactful and stopped talking to the girl, at least in class or wherever he could find them.
“Female students were easy targets. A lot of us knew he liked to sleep with female students.”
Grace: Everything was about power to him. He always wanted us to know that he was in charge and that there was nothing we could do about it. Female students were easy targets. A lot of us knew he liked to sleep with girls.
Bukola: In one of his classes, he said something about how his wife knew that he had ‘bitches’.
Grace: He also liked to talk a lot about how the “big girls” who were forming in class would come to beg him when it was time for exams.
Bukola: There were female students he called into his office and propositioned, asking for money or sex. Typically, none of them said anything. But there were lots of people who came to class, wearing long faces. It was torture for them to spend hours watching him teach in class.
Edward: There were instances when I wanted to see Mr Bisi Olaleye. I would knock for minutes non-stop on his door and he wouldn’t answer. Later, a female student would emerge from his office.
Grace: He once asked my friend to meet him at Buka. Another lecturer was with him when my friend went, but Mr Bisi didn’t care. He made lewd comments and asked her to have sex with him. My friend was visibly disturbed when she returned.
Edward: Sometime after I’d written my final year exams, I was by Ede road with a few classmates when he drove by with a lady in the car, probably to drop her off. On his way back, he stopped and chilled with us. I guess the dynamics were different then because we didn’t have the lecturer-student relationship anymore. There was this bar opposite Maintenance at the time; we moved there to get something to eat. The attendants brought the menu, which didn’t include any swallow and he wasn’t happy about this. According to him, he preferred swallow and lots of vegetables because it gave him stamina to have a lot of sex. Then he began telling us stories about our female classmates he’d had sex with. He’d gotten drunk, so his guard was down.
“He has students who help him to get girls. The students who he gives these tasks have two options — get him the girls or risk failing his course.”
Bukola: He thought he was untouchable, so he was loud about his exploits. I think he was comfortable because he’d been enabled for a long time. The lecturers who could hold him responsible protected him because they wanted to keep their secrets buried too.
Edward: Everyone in the department knew about his behaviour, but no one did anything to caution him.
Bukola: I think the worst part of this is that he has students who help him to get girls. The students who he gives these tasks have two options — get him the girls or risk failing his course. An audio recording went viral when this recent story broke out about a male student coaxing a female student to have sex with him for marks. I know the guy. We were supposed to graduate together but he’s still in school because he’s entangled with Bisi, who is his supervisor.
Edward: I know he did everything he has been accused of. I hope he doesn’t get away with it this time. If that happens, this man will become more brazen. And that won’t be good for his students.
We spoke with Mojeed Alabi, the journalist who broke this story, and Kiki Mordi, an investigative journalist who has been actively involved in the Sex for Grades conversation.
Mojeed Alabi (Deputy Head of Investigations at Premium Times): We got a scoop on Bisi Olaleye and we decided to follow it. There was a real story there and that was what we published.
Kiki Mordi (Investigative Journalist): Some students from OAU had reached out to me before the story broke. It was a relief to see that the story got published because these students were emboldened, and it was only right that something came out of it. I tried to continue the conversation online, so it could get more attention and engagement. I also shared the story with a couple of my journalist friends who work with Human Right Commissions, just to bring it to their attention.
Mojeed Alabi: We continued to follow up to ensure that the people concerned took it seriously. Word of Bisi Olaleye’s behaviour had gotten to the management before the story broke and they were investigating it, but we had to do this story to let them know that the public was also watching.
Kiki Mordi: Sexual harassment by lecturers is a culture already and universities are complacent in fixing it. I hope Bisi Olaleye doesn’t get away with it. And if he gets anything less than what he deserves, we will always be here to demand for better.
Mojeed Alabi: A lot goes into reaching a final verdict. But it’s practically impossible for Bisi to get out of this. I believe that the OAU management are committed to meting out justice and I’m sure Bisi won’t go unpunished.
Kiki Mordi: The Sex for Marks bill has not been passed by the National Aseembly and I’ve expressed my frustrations at this so many times. When it passed the second reading, I was hoping that it might be passed. ASUU is trying to knock down the bill though.
Mojeed Alabi: They (ASUU) are kicking against the bill because they felt they were being targeted. They didn’t think the bill would protect them from students and what they could do to them.
Kiki Mordi: The bill does protect the lecturers because it puts the burden of finding proof on the students. It’s hard to prove these things, but when a number of people have complained about a lecturer or you’ve been able to establish a pattern, you can conduct your independent investigation. The universities should be able to do that, and if they can’t, they should delegate to whoever can. I’m still hopeful that the bill will be passed. We will see how that goes.
Mojeed Alabi: I understand the need for lecturer-student relationships to facilitate the exchange of ideas that academic institutions are created for. I am in for a holistic legislation that will address the concerns of the lecturers, the students, the parents, and every relevant stakeholder. That’s the best way to go.
The management of the university, through the Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Olanrewaju, confirmed that the university set up a panel to investigate the scandal last year, months before the story first broke. “Mr Olaleye was suspended after the panel submitted its preliminary report,” Mr Abiodun Olanrewaju told us. On the status of the investigation and when a final verdict might be passed, he said he couldn’t comment on that at the moment because all official duties in the university had been suspended in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.
“Most people don’t know but in my first few months, I was in Chemistry before I moved to Agriculture. We had to do our faculty and departmental registration by hand at the time.”
“So there were about a thousand students in the Physics Lab fixing to do their registration for the Faculty of Science and move on with their lives. After waiting a day and coming back the next day as early as I could, it was finally my turn.”
“See, I’m left-handed, so I handed my file over but she wouldn’t take it. She shouted, ordering me to go to the end of the line. How dare I present something to her with my left hand? Do I have elders at home?”
“I had to wait for about 20 people to go first, then I apologised properly before she considered answering me. It was frustrating” – Adebayo. Obafemi Awolowo University.”
