The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ibadan (UI) Chapter, has urged the Inspector General of Police, Alkali Baba, to assist the Oyo State Police Command with all logistics needed to unravel and arrest the killers of Prof. Opeyemi Ajewole.
This is contained in a release signed by the Chairman, UI Chapter of ASUU, Prof. Ayo Akinwole in Ibadan on Thursday.
Ajewole, until he was gruesomely gunned down by yet-to-be-identified assailants in the evening of Monday, 5 June 2023, was a lecturer in the Department of Social and Environmental Forestry Development.
The union also implored President Bola Tinubu to take passionate interest and ensure the security system unmasks the faces behind the murder of the professor.
“The heart of every ASUU-UI member is 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, Prof. Opeyemi Ajewole and charge the security operatives to track down and apprehend the perpetrators of this dastardly act, with a view to unraveling the motive behind the incident, as well as bringing the perpetrators to book,” UI ASUU Chairman said.
According to Akinwole, the only tribute which the death of Ajewole deserves is that his killers are brought to justice and that Nigerians’ lives should matter to the Tinubu presidency
He noted that “Prof. Ajewole’s gruesome murder again reminded us of how valueless human lives had become in our clime“.
The ASUU chief maintained that “death lurks in all imaginable and unimaginable corners of this country and comes cheaply.
“The Nigerian populace is constantly assailed by terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, assassination, hunger, unemployment, and many more insidious exterminators of our individual and collective dreams.
“The situation of the Nigerian academics is even doubly precarious; they are prophets without any honour at home,“ he said.
Akinwole said that despite the immense contributions to national growth and development and recognition in the international circle, Nigerian academia is scorned and shabbily treated at home.
“It is, therefore, disheartening that academics who cultivate, preserve, and disseminate knowledge for the advancement and development of the society will become victims of societal malady to such an extent as to be targeted for elimination.
“The union wishes to use this teary occasion of Prof. Ajewole’s sudden death to call on the Nigerian state to resolutely tackle the problem of insecurity in the country, apprehend the killers of Prof. Ajewole and punish them most appropriately,“ the ASUU boss said.
