ASUU Urges President Tinubu, IGP To Arrest Killers of Professor Ajewole

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ibadan (UI) Branch, has urged President Tinubu to take passionate interest and ensure the security system unmasks the faces behind the murder of Professor Opeyemi Isaac Ajewole of the Department of Social and Environmental Forestry Development of the University.

In a release signed by the Chairman of UI ASUU, Professor Ayo Akinwole, the Union also tasked the Inspector General of Police, IGP Alkali Baba, to assist the Oyo State Police Command with all logistics support needed to unravel and arrest the killers of the professor.

The statement reads in part: “The hearts of every ASUU-UI member are bleeding so profusely as if pierced by swords. Our bones shook so tremendously as if our marrows were naked in the tundra region. 

“We condemn in totality the gruesome murder of our comrade, Professor Opeyemi Isaac Ajewole and charge the security operatives to track down and apprehend the perpetrators of this dastardly act, with a view to unravelling the motive behind the incident as well as bringing the perpetrators to book.”

Akinwole affirmed that the only tribute which the death of Professor Ajewole deserves is that his killers are brought to justice and that Nigerians’ lives should matter to the Tinubu presidency, saying: “Professor Ajewole’s gruesome murder again reminds us of how valueless human lives have become in our clime.”

The ASUU Boss maintained that death, which comes cheaply, lurks in all imaginable and unimaginable corners of the country, saying the Nigerian populace is constantly assailed by terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, assassination, hunger, unemployment, and many more insidious exterminators of the individual and collective dreams of Nigerians.

He stated: “The situation of the Nigerian academics is even doubly precarious; they are prophets without any honour at home. Despite their immense contributions to national growth and development and recognitions in the international circle, Nigerian academia are scorned and shabbily treated by the Nigerian state and the public for being unrepentant patriots.

Akinwole lamented that it is disheartening that academics who cultivate, preserve, and disseminate knowledge for the advancement and development of the society would become victims of societal malady to such an extent as to be targeted for elimination.

“The Union wishes to use this teary occasion of Professor Ajewole’s sudden death to call on the Nigerian state to resolutely tackle the problem of insecurity in the country, apprehend the killers of Professor Ajewole and punish them most appropriately. This is the least tribute that this nation can pay to our fallen hero and friend- Professor Opeyemi Isaac Ajewole,” the statement concludes.

Professor Ajewole was gruesomely gunned down by yet-to-be-identified assailants in the evening of Monday, 5 June, 2023, in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Lateefah Ibrahim