Full Account: OAU October 1st 2021 Protest

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October 1st Protest

In the early hours of Friday, the Independence day, students converged at Student Union Building (SUB) and later proceeded to the University Health Centre. On discovering that it was locked, they took their protest to the main gate of the University. Students shut the campus gate. 

After some minutes of protest, Professor Isiaka Aransi, the Dean of Division of Students Affairs showed up to address the students. They refused to give him audience and demanded that the Vice Chancellor, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede address them instead. After many hours of protesting, students felt they were not given proper attention by the University management. They proceeded to block Ife/Ede road and also went ahead to block the Ife/Ibadan expressway to get the attention of the public. 

The Public Relations Officer of the University, Dr Abiodun Olarenwaju, later turned up to address the students but, he was not welcomed, as students insisted on being addressed by the Vice Chancellor.

Amidst protest, security and welfare committees were set up. Some students agreed to finance the protest and not long after, buses were seen supplying bags of pure water. The protesters were also given drinks and money was sprayed as several protesters danced to make the protest ground lively.

Later in the evening, a congress was held at the Ife/Ibadan expressway, where they made resolutions that: 
- a candle night session was to hold that Friday night.
- all exams scheduled to hold the following day (Saturday) was cancelled.
- The protest was to continue the following day by 7am.
- All roads leading to campus would be shut for Saturday's protest.

After the congress, students removed barricades to allow free flow of traffic and moved to the main campus gate.

Candle light Procession Turns Protest
 
At 6:30 PM, students commenced a candle light procession in honour of late Aishat Adeshina Omowumi. The procession commenced at the main gate and was supposed to end at SUB. Students marched en masse, singing threnodies as they headed to SUB.

Admist the candle light procession, the University made a press release dated 1st of October, 2021, that the University had been shut down till further notice. 
It was also stated in the release that students living in all Halls of residence were to vacate the premises on or before 12 noon on Saturday, 2nd of October, 2021. The ongoing rain semester of the 2019/2020 academic session was put on hold till further notice. Consequently, the swearing-in of the Students’ Union Officers who were newly elected last month following the union’s reinstatement was also put on hold pending a review of the situation. 

When the students who were marching to SUB heard about the press release, they turned the procession into a protest and decided to end the candle light procession at the Senate Building, by placing candles at entrance to express their grievance. 

That same night, student activists began a "nobody is going home" campaign in Halls of residence on campus. They insisted that the decision of the University was unfair and that it was made to punish students who were exercising their rights by staging a peaceful protest. Students believed that the closure of the school was a plot ochestrated by the University management to cover up their inadequacies.

 Day 2 of the Protest


On Saturday, the 2nd of October, 2021, students continued the protest. the University main gate was shut to prevent the exit of students from campus. Some students went to halls of residence to mobilise people for the protest. Within the campus environment, roads were barricaded to restrict easy flow of traffic. However, the protest was short lived as Students' Union officials made a press release that the protest had been called off as they dialogued with the school management for the school reopening. After the protest was called off, students trooped out of the school in large numbers as they complied to the order of the school management.

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