July 10, 1999: The Day Devil Drank Blood On OAU Ife Campus

imageimageForty-two days after President Olusegun Obasanjo was sworn in, five students – 21 year old George Akinyemi Iwilade (Afrika), Yemi Ajiteru, Ekede Efe, Eviano Ekelemu, Babatunde Oke – were murdered by suspected cultists led by one Efosa of the Black Axe Confraternity from the University of Benin in an attack believed to have been sponsored by the then VC, Prof. Wale Omole.

The then Students’ Union president, Lanre Adeleke was said to have escaped being killed by jumping from the third floor of Block 8 of the Obafemi Awolowo Hall where his room was but the Secretary General, Afrika, was unlucky as he was matcheted to death in his room 281.

Their offence was that they were against anti-student policies of the management which included astronomical increase in tuition fee and poor welfare conditions.

Great Ife responded by mobilising heavily to arrest the perpetrators. They were forced to hand them over to the Police but unfortunately, sixteen years after, those who killed the Iwo, Osun State, born 400 law student and four others their killers are yet to be booked.

That OAU basks in the euphoria of being Africa’s most peaceful campus is not due to the magnanimity of the management, it is the consciousness of the ‘ever-tatan’ Great Ife to stand against anti-social behaviour.

For the whole duration of my degree, I lived on campus. Till now, there is no night on campus; you walk and work any time you want. Nobody can intimidate or harass you except you decide to keep silent. All what you need do is to popularize the case by shouting on top of your voice. Passers-by would wait and before you know it, the shout of “Awo cafe” will rent the air. Awo cafe is our court where submissions would be heard on the matter…

As Great Ife all over the world, both living and dead, remember those who laid down their lives for the peace we enjoyed and the current members of OAU community enjoy, may their killers never know peace anywhere they are and may the wrath of God descend on them.

Afrika wa da (where is our Afrika?)
Ao ri (He is no where to be found)
Ni ‘bo l’olo… (where has he gone to)

Rest in peace, OAU martyrs….

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