One Feared Dead, Cars Burnt as Protesting Students Attack Fayemi’s Wife’s Convoy

One Feared Dead, Cars Burnt as Protesting Students Attack Fayemi’s Wife’s Convoy

Victor Ogunje in Ado-Ekiti

Wife of Ekiti State Governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, yesterday escaped physical attack from protesting students of the Federal University in Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE).

Though the protest was described as peaceful by the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Asuquo Amba, it was said to have been hijacked by hoodlums, leading to the death of one person.

It was alleged that some hoodlums yesterday afternoon hijacked the protest staged by students of FUOYE in Oye-Ekiti and attacked the convoy of the First Lady of the state, who was in the town on a tour of some local government areas of the state to dish out empowerment items to the indigenes and residents.

THISDAY gathered that Fayemi’s wife was ferried with police vehicle to escape to Ayegbaju Ekiti after two police vans were allegedly burnt by the students, who wielded sticks, bottles and other dangerous weapons.

Unconfirmed report said two persons were killed as police and students engaged in confrontation.

It was gathered that the hoodlums went on rampage upon realising that the First Lady was around, a few hours after the students staged another protest over incessant power outage on the campus. The protest, according to the students, was to call on the federal government’s attention to their plights.

The students were alleged to have also engaged the security operatives in violent clashes and allegedly vandalised vehicles in the convoy of the First Lady.

Some policemen allegedly lost their rifles after being overpowered by the students.

Sources said the students of FUOYE had gathered as early as 6.39 a.m. yesterday in front of the gates of the twin campuses of the institution in Oye and Ikole respectively.

It was gathered that the students had dispersed after a few hours and normalcy had returned on the campuses and their environs.

But, some miscreants later allegedly regrouped to take advantage of the occasion to unleash violence on innocent people.

Reacting to the development, the Public Relations Officer, Ekiti State Command, DSP 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 vandalised 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 should go about their normal businesses,” he said,

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