The visit of Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike to Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) for the 2025 Distinguished Personality Lecture was momentarily interrupted on Thursday when two students staged a protest inside the main auditorium.
While Wike addressed the gathering at the Oduduwa Hall in Ile-Ife, the students, Oladepo Joshua and Ejike Kelechi, stood up holding placards and chanting,
“Minister Wike, we demand you compensate the people whose houses you demolished.”
Security operatives swiftly moved in and escorted the students out of the venue.
The incident, captured in a video circulating online, showed the brief protest before calm was restored and the event continued.
In response to the development, the university’s Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Olarewaju, clarified that the students were not arrested but removed for their safety.
“Everybody has a right to protest, and the minority, microscopic minorities, should not disrupt what the overwhelming majority allows,” Olarewaju said.
“They were not arrested; they were only escorted out of the Oduduwa Hall. We didn’t want the situation to escalate, because some of their colleagues were the ones who accosted them,” he explained.
He noted that the reaction from other students prompted immediate intervention to avoid potential violence.
“You know, when about 20 students descended on two students, something could happen. So, the security operatives there just apprehended the two students, took them out of the hall,” he added.
“I mean, how can just two students, only two students, decide to disrupt what other students said they like? So, so that their colleagues will not beat them, or injure them, or do anything untoward, that was why our security personnel just took them out of the hall.”
Students will ever remain student . Wike being a student before would never consider such a reaction strange.
What a country, they only made their minds known and they were stopped. Ok agreed they ,opposition students were only 2 why not allow them to finish what they started before been taken out or arrested. This is in contrast to what happened at qishiri in Abuja when the minister himself went against the protocol while commissioning the road there and shook hands with the students or pupils and went ahead to snap pictures because he was hailed for a good job he did there. Are our politicians and leaders God, that should not be questioned or asked for wrong steps taken? That is why we are still where we are . This is not democracy we are practicing
The Students are the true heroes in OAU.
The spirit of Aluta is still alive in them.
Solidarity for all Nigerians who are now homeless as a result of Government actions.
APOSTOLIC REVIVAL MOVEMENT IS SAYING TINUBU IS DOING WELL. APC IS DOING THE NEEDFUL.
What did they want, is it the poverty and hardship they puting people to that they want. No body with his,/her right sense will want anything about Tinubu or wike.
Thanks Sir I remain on your point of view.