The Vice Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile Ife, Prof.Eyitope Ogunbodede, on Monday escaped as armed hoodlums attacked his convoy and other members of the management of the university.
Members of the Osun State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists whose vehicles were in the convoy of the vice chancellor were also lucky as the hoodlums open fire when the OAU team went to inspect an hostel at the Parakin area of Ile Ife.
The land upon which the new hostel was built is said to be under dispute and the hoodlums attacked the OAU team who had gone to inspect the hostel which was said to have been completed over two years ago.
The vehicles in the VC’s entourage were said to have quickly made U-turn and drove away as the hoodlums were shooting in the air and hitting the vehicles with axe handles and other dangerous weapons.
The visibly shaken vice chancellor, while addressing journalists later on the campus, said the land under dispute was part of the university land gazetted by the Federal Government.
Ogunbodede said, “We have been to the area where the disputed land is, it is part of the gazetted land of the university, and you can see the kind of action that was put up at the area, we have hostel there which has been completed for over two and half years but we have not been able to occupy the place.
“I don’t want to lose any of our students. We are short of accommodation for our students but it’s not worth the lives of our students. You can see that it is only God that saved us today. You can see the shooting and all sorts of things but we thank God that we all survived it.
“We will try as much as possible to continue to maintain peace because the university can not continue to exist without the community. We will try as much as possible to continue to reach a perfect understanding with the community.
“You can see that we are in a very serious situation as far as OAU land is concerned. We have reached out to the federal government and they have given us a matching order. They are not interested in ceding an inch of the university land to anybody.
“The Federal Government has also given us a substantial amount of money to start the fencing. They are conscious of the fact that we have a council for the university. The council is also being conscious of the fact that we have maintained cordial relationships with the community.
“We are not going to allow people to occupy the gazetted land without approval from the Federal Government. If the Federal Government decide to revise it, no problem. But, as far as that is still standing, it is going to be difficult for anybody to just cede out the university land.
“Ooni is aware and he has given us his words that he’s trying to ensure that sanity prevails and we all live in peace.”
