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.”
APOSTOLIC REVIVAL MOVEMENT IS SAYING TINUBU IS DOING WELL. APC IS DOING THE NEEDFUL.