Femi Aborishade, Nigerian human rights activist and Senior Lecturer
at The Polytechnic, Ibadan, has alleged threats to his life and his
family following successive attacks at his residence and stalking by an
unknown gang, allegations now pulling the institution apart.
Speaking to SaharaReporters, Mr. Aborishade narrated how, at about
1:30 am on November 22, 2012, a gang broke into his residence, beating
him up alongside his wife and making away with some personal effects.
The second attack occurred five weeks later on December 29, he said,
during which the gang stood at his door and called him by name, asking
him to ‘come out’, but he refused.
According to him, the concentration of attacks on him, two times
within such a short period, alerted him to suspect that his life is at
grave risk.
Apart from the physical attacks, Mr. Aborishade said he has also
noticed some prowlers on his trail, a development that has made him
vacate his residence at the Polytechnic senior staff quarters.
Mr. Aborishade, who teaches in the Business Administration
Department, has criticized the Polytechnic for apathy concerning his
plight. He said he had written to the Inspector General of Police as the
Polytechnic did not take the matter of his life seriously.
SaharaReporters contacted the Acting Rector of the Polytechnic, Mr.
Adebisi Adeniran, who claimed that Mr. Aborishade did not inform the
Polytechnic of the situation officially. The institution, he said,
learned of the incidents from the police following Aborishade’s reports
to them.
“We were not officially informed of that. But then, the authority
still provided him two security personnel who are stationed at his
residence”, said the Acting Rector.
The Polytechnic, he noted, is an Academic community. “The Rector is
not trained to carry ammunition. If there is a threat to somebody’s
life, what we could do is to approach the police for security support
and since he has already done that as a citizen of Nigeria, what more
are we expected to do? We should only wait for the police to do their
job,” he said.
Mr. Aborishade had earlier pointed out that the attacks followed his
trenchant criticism of unpopular moves by the Polytechnic authorities.
He stated that he had opposed a move to impose a leader on the student’s
body in the institution.
Saharareporters also learned from another source that Mr. Aborishade
had also moved a motion against prodigal spending by a committee of the
Polytechnic which spent N50million on a trip to Dubai in order to
conduct an inquiry. The source said Mr. Aborishade maintained that the
inquiry could be made over the Internet as against wasting N50millionof
the Polytechnic’s fund on the foreign visit.
Even though the source did not link Mr. Aborishade’s criticism to his
recent security problems, the Polytechnic’s Acting Rector stated that
the alleged attacks could be from any source, noting that Mr. Aborishade
is a man of many societal concerns.
“For instance”, Mr. Adebisi said, “he is an activist. Also at a time,
he had contested an election. So, threats could come from anywhere. But
if he suspects anything or anybody, he should say it out.”
The Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Mr.
Oluwasegun, drew specific attention to the fact that the security at The
Polytechnic was overwhelmed and that the gang which went to Mr.
Aborishade at the quarters during the second raid mentioned his name and
called on him to show himself. Mr. Olwasegun stressed that what was
abnormal was that one person was repeatedly the target, while others who
lived within same quarters were spared.
But the Polytechnic’s Chief Security Officer was quoted as saying
that the attackers were cultists from the campus, a statement which a
source says only suggests that Mr. Aborishade is at loggerheads with
them or may have taken a position at one of the Polytechnic’s meetings
which contradicts the interest of the heinous group.
For his part, Mr. Olusegun Adebayo Philips said it was not new for
armed robbery attacks to take place within the residential quarters, but
that the dynamics of the latest one in which a particular person is the
target and his name mentioned during an invasion is suspicious.
A statement issued by Mr. Ayodele Akele, the Executive Director of
Labour, Health and Human rights Development Centre, also accused the
Acting Rector of apathy, even complicity.
It said: “The attitude of the Management of the institution has left
much to be desired. In fact it smacks of conspiracy and accomplices. How
do you explain the criminal silence or ambivalent position of the Ag.
Rector Ibadan Polytechnic over this matter? Up till now the Polytechnic
is yet to carry out any investigation on the two attacks on Aborisade.
Why has the Polytechnic authority not set up an investigation into the
attacks on the life of Aborisade and family?”
It also asked: “Why has the Ag. Rector gone to town without any
investigation to trivialize such heinous crime and drawing conclusions
that the attackers were mere ‘night marauders’?”
“He (the Rector) further asserted that it was the Polytechnic
security officers that were shooting in Femi’s house on the second
attack and not the attackers and that if Aborisade were their target
they would have gone for their target.
“We believe the Ag. Rector owes the public an explanation as to how
he came about all the above conclusions if he or the authorities were
not the sponsors of the attacks… What is responsible for the Rector’s
attitude or apathy?”
Comrade Akele also posited in the statement that it was the
nonchalant attitude of the Ibadan Polytechnic authorities that compelled
Aborisade to send an SOS to the IGP in the first place and secondly to
relocate outside the official quarters with his family.
Saharareporters has also learned that a congress of the ASUP today at
the Ibadan Polytechnic tabled Mr. Aborishade’s threat-to-life- matter.
The Chairman of ASUP said the union has given the Ibadan Polytechnic a
two-week ultimatum to set up an investigation panel to look into the
threat to the life of Mr. Aborishade. In addition to that, ASUP itself
has set up a seven man committee, headed by Mr. Bamidele Aturu, to
investigate the issue as a matter of urgency.
Meanwhile, Mr. Aborishade said that while on his way to the ASUP
congress on Monday, he suspected a man who stood in his way, holding to
his mouth a walkie-talkie device and flagging him to stop, but that he
drove speedily away because the man was in mufti and did not look like a
genuine policeman or security official.
Source:
Sahara reporters
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