Strike: FUOYE, SSANU Trade Blames Over Death of Asthmatic student

The management of Federal University, Oye Ekiti, has blamed the death of a student of the institution on the insensitivity of members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) who were on strike.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Abayomi Fasina said the deceased student who was asthmatic could not get treatment due to on-going industrial action that led to the closure of the university’s health centre.

Addressing journalists in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, Prof. Fasina represented by Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration), Prof. Tajudeen Opoola, noted that FUOYE was invaded by hoodlums in cohort with SSANU members and shut down based on false information given to the national body.

The vice-chancellor warned that FUOYE management would no longer fold its arms and allow the breakdown of law and order in the university under the guise of the strike.

He said: “We lost a student this morning in FUOYE who had asthma because he could not be taken to our clinic because the facility is under lock and key.

“It is true that students are on vacation but not all of them are living on campus. It would have been easier for the student to be rushed to our clinic for treatment, but our university gate was locked.

“This morning, I was in the Ekiti State University, and the administrative block was wide open. The total strike is not going on in EKSU. But the same leadership of EKSU SSANU went on air yesterday to incite the public and even led some hoodlums to invade our school based on a false narrative he was fed by Chairman FUOYE SSANU.

“Our own chairman was the one who gave false information to the National President (of SSANU). Since he gave the impression that he had been beaten and harassed. The National President allegedly directed that the leadership of their union in Ondo, Osun and Kwara should proceed to FUOYE to rescue the chairman. It is that impunity that the EKSU chairperson used. But we hope he won’t misuse the immunity.”

Fasina, who said the law would deal with the situation appropriately, said: “The University is not going to fold its arm and allow anybody in whatever name or allow any union to come and occupy our place. We have a way of dealing with such. This is Nigeria and nobody is above the law.”

The VC, who said that the SSANU chairman had “never been harassed or threatened by any security operative,” said: “The University is committed to continual maintenance peace and security on our campuses”.

But the SSANU chairman, Faleye, who said SSANU duly notified the university of the seven-day Warning Strike, queried, “Is FUOYE the only federal university that is observing the seven-day warning strike? Many schools are under lock and key.”

Reacting to the allegation that the SSANU strike was responsible for the student’s death, he said, “Before now, there was a notice of strike. I have a memo that the university issued before the notice that we will be embarking on a seven-day warning strike that directed the students to vacate the hostels to avoid something of such.”

Faleye denied the allegation that EKSU SSANU incited or led hoodlums to invade FUOYE, challenging the management to produce such evidence, alleging that rather, it was the university management that laid ambush for its monitoring team.