Police in Ekiti arrest two FUOYE students over attack on Fayemi’s wife’s convoy, recover rifles

• Varsity’s management sets up 12-man investigative panel
• Party condenms use of live ammunition on protesting students
Police in Ekiti State yesterday said they had arrested two students of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), in connection with the attack on the convoy of wife of Ekiti State Governor, Mrs. Bisi Fayemi, and her security details.

The police also said that the two rifles seized from the police during the crisis had been retrieved.The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Asuquo Amba, who disclosed this to journalists in Ado-Ekiti, said two of his men were wounded while two police vans were burnt during the attack.

“Two persons have been arrested and one of them had confessed to the commission of the crime.“When a crime is committed, we don’t fold our arms and watch. Even a civilian can effect arrest if crime is committed in front of him and hand the suspect over to the police,” the CP said.

Amba condemned the attack on the police while doing their statutory duties, saying it was wrong for his operatives to have been beaten to stupor for trying to restore orderliness.

“It is sad that police are being attacked by criminals and the civilians whom we are protecting are also attacking our people.“We won’t rest until the perpetrators of this dastardly attack are arrested and brought to justice,” he said.

Meanwhile, the management of the university, led by its Vice Chancellor, Prof. Kayode Soremekun, has set up a 12-man investigative panel to look into the root cause of the violent protest.A memo signed by the Director of Administration in the office of the Vice Chancellor, Mr. Olatunbosun Odusanya, said the panel would be headed by Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof. Abayomi Fasina.

The management, according to the memo, gave the panel two weeks to submit its report. However, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-West geo-political zone has condemned the use of live ammunition on the student demonstrators, resulting in the killing of at least two students by the police.

The party in a communique issued at the end of stakeholders’ meeting of the party in Ibadan yesterday, signed by its National Vice Chairman, Dr Eddy Olafeso, said: “We declare that it is callous and criminal of the police to use live ammunition on unarmed student demonstrators. We, therefore, demand that those irresponsible officers who killed them must be fished out for trial.”

FUOYE’s students had on Tuesday staged a peaceful protest in Oye-Ekiti over incessant outage in the institution, leading to attack on the convoy of the governor’s wife, Mrs. Bisi Fayemi, resulting to killing of two persons and several wounded with over a dozen of vehicles vandalised during the protest.