A mob attack on innocent students that could have resulted in bloodletting was averted last week.
The youths were 45 newly admitted students of the Lead City University, Ibadan.
The indigent students were said to be under the scholarship of a former governor of Sokoto State and now Senator, Aliyu Wamakko.
The students, admitted to study various science, engineering and medical courses, had departed Sokoto for the varsity campus at Ibadan.
However, their journey was halted when they got to the Soka area of Ibadan.
Narrating their near-death experience, one of the students, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “Suddenly, the bus conveying us was stopped by overzealous vigilantes somewhere around Soka.
“We were petrified when we learnt from the argument between the driver and the locals that we are suspected Boko Haram members being ferried from northern states to wreak havoc in the southern states. They were threatening jungle justice.
“Throughout the course of the argument, we were held captive inside the bus, alongside the officials accompanying us, not until two people came inside the bus and ascertained that we were new intakes of Lead City University and contrary to the bogus number being peddled, we were 45 students, with three accompanying officials.”
The student revealed that they were eventually allowed to proceed with the interventions of the community development association, the varsity Registrar, Dr Oyebola Ayeni, and the police.
The Oyo State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Olugbenga Fadeyi, said the report he got from the Divisional Police Officer of Sanyo was that the occupants of the bus were students and not Boko Haram insurgents or Fulani herdsmen as speculated.
The Coordinator of the Oodua People’s Congress in Oyo State, Mr Rotimi Olumo, said he contacted the police regarding the matter.
He said, “We contacted the police when we saw them and I don’t think there is anything bad in that. We all know the security situation in the country, so nobody should expect us not to say anything seeing such large number of people coming here.”
-Punch
