Four Oye Ekiti University, one policeman feared dead as students protest turned violent …Fayemi’s wife attacked (See Photos & Video)

The protest embarked upon by students of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), turned violent on Tuesday evening leaving in its trails death of four students and one policeman, with several others injured and properties, including government vehicles destroyed.

Wife of the Governor of Ekiti State, Mrs. Bisi Fayemi, who was on tour of council areas in the state, escaped being attacked by the protesters as they smashed all the vehicles in her convoy.

Students of FUOYE had gathered as early as 6:39 am in front of the gates of the twin campuses of the institution in Oye and Ikole respectively.

The students were said to have gone on rampage few hours after they have protested against incessant power outage.

Sources said the students had attempted to seize the opportunity of the governor wife’s presence at the Oye Local Government Hall for her Local Councils tour to express their frustration on lack of power supply and exorbitant bills by the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) when policemen in her convoy fired shots to disperse the protesting students.

The students were denied access to the hall, promoting their anger and throwing of stones at the hall.

Security men in the entourage of the governor’s wife, in their bid to move her out of the hall started shooting.

The students were said to have engaged the security operatives detailed with the governor’s wife in a violent clash with some vehicles on the convoy, including that of the security operatives were burnt and two pump rifle seized.

Mrs Fayemi was sandwiched by some whiskers in a commando-like manner through a marked white hilux van for safety. She was whisked away through Ayegbaju Ekiti with civil servants, journalists and policemen on her entourage were severely injured.

As at the time of filing this report, four students and a policeman were reported dead while many people, including journalists in the governor’s wife convoy were injured.

Reacting, the Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, Mr. Caleb Ikechukwu, confirmed the attack on the governor’s wife.

Ikechukwu explained that the students protested in the morning and blocked the Ifaki-Ikole-Omuo highway and prevented free flow of vehicles.

“The students did not allow vehicles to move freely and they vandalized the property of Benin Electricity Distribution Company .

“When police went there to dialogue with them, they resisted them. And the wife of the governor who went on local government tour ran into the barricade mounted on the road.

“The students were reported to have been violent destroying cars and smashed the windscreens of vehicles.

“We want to warn that the command won’t tolerate hooliganism under any guise. We want to assure the public that the police are on top of the situation and our people must go about their normal businesses”.

Earlier before the protest turned bloody, President of the Students’ Union Government, Oluwaseun Awodola, while addressing the students, had lamented poor power supply, which he said had heightened insecurity of lives and property on the two campuses and host communities.

Awodola said, “The generality of Oye Ekiti is suffering from poor power supply. It came to our notice that our students are being molested in the night, our students are being beaten in the night, and our students are being gang robbed in the night because we don’t have light.

“Everywhere in FUOYE is dark. Our students keep charging at petrol filling station. This is risky. We don’t want mass death in FUOYE. What we want is a stable power supply,” he said.

Other leaders, who took turns to address the gatherings, said students’ environment needed stable power supply for them to read and have unhindered access to internet.

FUOYE Public Relations Officer, Mr Godfrey Bakji, who said the university was not in control of power, described the protest as senseless, as he appealed to the students not to disrupt academic activities.