A Petition to The Governors Of The State of Osun and Oyo State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Gov. Abiola Ajimobi respectively, on the recent appointment of Prof Wale Omole as the Chairman Governing Council of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH).
Your Excellencies,
I am Adeleke Olanrewaju, a former Public Relations Officer and later President of the Obafemi Awolowo University Students' Union. I write to protest your decision appointing the erstwhile Vice-Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Prof. Wale Omole as the Chairman Governing Council of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology
Your appointee, Prof. Wale Omole was the Vice Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University from the year 1991 until his inglorious removal on the 13th July 1999, over the killing of five students' leaders of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife. The students are the then Secretary General of the Student's Union, George Yemi Iwilade, Ekede Efe, Tunde Oke, Yemi Ajiteru and Eviano Ekelemu. I was the primary target of the attack, but escaped by the whiskers!
It was during the tenure of Prof. Wale Omole that I had the opportunity to serve the students, and by extension the university community, for a period of two and a half years in the above stated capacities.My protest to your Excellencies, is not unconnected with the performance of your appointee while he was Vice Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, particularly the murder of the five students mentioned above, which till today remained unresolved despite overwhelming evidence pointing to the culprits.
As a first hand witness of all the events that took place in 1999, I make bold to say that a person under whose watch a university lost 5 promising youths in questionable circumstances, and who the arrested perpetrators named as the sponsor of the killings, is not fit to be Pro Chancellor of a University.
It is not accidental that Obafemi Awolowo University never witnessed such gruesome killings, till the coming of Prof. Omole, and none again, after his removal from office!
I attach herewith a publication of the students' Union of Obafemi Awolowo University, published 14years ago, giving detailed account of what happened , the book titled 'A Cry for Justice', and a copy of the Justice Etam's Judicial Panel of Inquiry's initial report, (a Judicial panel that was set up by the Federal government on the July 10 killings). I am sure these two documents would be of good use for your review.
The Panel of inquiry set up by the Federal Government chaired by Retired Justice Okon Etam, in their report, found against your appointee as follows:
"We find him culpable in three main areas:
1- Handling of the election of the students' Union and the non-recognition of the elected executives
2- The arrest and trial of the cultists of March 1999,
3- Handling of campus security and cult activities."
Please refer to Page 32 (10.02), Page 35 (10.06) and in addition to issues generated in the 'Cry for justice', the findings and recommendations in the Judicial commissions' report, essentially pages 32-39
The Commission further recommended that Professor Wale Omole should be "seriously reprimanded" for his high-handedness in the handling of administrative matters as well as Police investigation of issues directly affecting his involvement in the July 10, 1999 killings.
The further Police investigation was never done, and I think your Excellencies should know why!
Should this cord of suspicion of murder, to say the least, hang on a man's neck, and the Government which sees no reason to prosecute further, turns such cord into a medal, in getting the chairmanship of a governing council? Where lays the hope for justice by the common man!
May I equally remind your Excellencies, that the Osun's state House of Assembly under the leadership of Governor Bisi Akande at that time, sent a team of its members to see things on the campus during the tragedy, and with shocking revelations, the house members passed a vote of no confidence on Prof. Wale Omole's administration.
I had the opportunity of watching Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, on a national TV station during the unveiling of the multipurpose park at Gbongon junction in Osun State, in honour of the late Alhaji Alabi Hassan Olajoku. I was moved to tears when I heard how the man was murdered by political assassins. When the wife spoke, in spite of her attempt to make the issues so light I wept profusely, this was because I could deduce another trend of "Unknown Soldiers", "unknown killers" that has come to be associated with gruesome murders in Nigeria, thus making criminality, especially murder, look like acts performed by invisible creatures like the UFO- unidentifiable flying objects.
Your Excellency (Ogbeni Rauf), we share a common past in this regard. Like me, you were a primary target of assassination! You could have been killed by the UFO! Like me, your colleague and follower was murdered! And like you said on that day, I know where the attack came from, you got the clues!
But beyond clues, as in the case of Alhaji Alabi Hassan Olajoku, in the July 10 killings, we caught in a matter of hours, those who carried out the killings with their apparels socked with blood of the victims, and they voluntarily named Prof. Wale Omole as their sponsor.
Your Excellencies, it is my belief that in a society where moral values and good sense of justice holds forth, a person with such a record of the gruesome murder of 5 students under his stewardship; unceremonious removal from office; and a recommendation of further investigation by a judicial panel set up by the Federal Government should not be allowed to partake in the administration of a citadel of learning, not to talk of being chairman of its Governing Council.
Prof Omole as Vice chancellor, at a period that absolute military dictatorships of IBB/Abacha holds sway, was more than a willing tool of the then ruling military authority in the repression of the people. A situation which the likes of your Excellencies and so many of us vehemently resisted. I still remember how he severally plotted our arrest during the military era by men of the SSS.
He victimized via expulsion and suspension, affecting and ruining careers of scores of union activists agitating for better welfare, for holding rallies to protest the hanging of Late Ken Saro wiwa and the quest for democratic governance, up to the validation of June 12!. His record of poor financial accountability and non-conformity to due-process are shocking!
While the administrative in-adequacies and other lesser than acceptable values of Prof. Wale Omole, are worrisome, his involvement and culpable role in the murder of 5 innocent students is more worrisome. He is not fit and proper to hold public post, least to talk of becoming loco-parentis to young students. If he believes he has requisite character for social, public and political leadership, he should go and contest on his name! He should not be allowed to stain your banners.
More-importantly, criminal matters are never time-bound. The Federal Government can decide to institute a criminal proceedings against Prof. Omole to the utter embarrassment of your offices and States.
Your Excellencies, I see a situation in future, when the history of the Nigerian educational sector, especially tertiary education, shall be read, where this appointment could as well surface as part of administrative errors that fanned the flames.
Finally, I charge your Excellencies to display the un-Nigerian, rare, but godly and exemplary leadership courage in recalling this appointment. "Ipinle Omoluabi", as well as the ancient and historic Oyo state are blessed with abundant men of virtue, willing and competent to serve the people. Like I cried for Justice 14 years ago, I am still crying for justice! The families of these 5 students are yearning for justice, so also, the entire world that watched the events across the globe on CNN/AIT/Channels TV etc, are craving for fairness and justice!
Sincerely yours,
Signed.
Adeleke Olanrewaju (Lanre Legacy)
No comments:
Post a Comment