Students shot as EFCC raids Oyo college

• It is a lie-EFCC

Three students of the Federal College of Forestry, Ibadan, Oyo State, were allegedly shot when a team of personnel from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) raided the college to make an arrest.

A staff of the school who pleaded anonymity said, “The EFCC team approached the management of the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) before going to the school which is located within the FRIN premises. The problem started when the EFCC officers proceeded to the school to make the arrest.

“The students came out in solidarity with their colleagues. While the issue was being sorted out by the FRIN management, a back-up team of the EFCC came and began shooting sporadically. I learnt three students sustained gunshot injuries and were taken to the hospital.”

The spokesman of the college, Mr Kehinde Olawale, who confirmed the development, said, “It is true that some people came to our college yesterday. They drove straight to the students’ area. The SUG president challenged them. They discovered that among those people who came were two people who wore red clothes and they wrote EFCC on them and they carried guns.

“One of the people that came said they came to investigate someone who stood in as a surety for someone. But, we don’t know the person they said they came to investigate.

“But later, we said that this was not proper in an academic environment, that we have many students. We told them that they needed to apologise to the students, but before we knew it, we saw some of them shooting sporadically. In the process, one of the students was shot.”

He added that, “It has gone beyond our students, NANS has mobilised students across the country over the issue.”

When contacted, Dele Oyewale, Head, Media & Publicity of EFCC, said  the operatives were in the college to authenticate the address and identity of one Oluwakemi, who stood as a surety for Alakinde Khalid Kolawole, a suspected internet fraudster in the custody of the Commission.

He alleged that for some inscrutable reasons, students and staff of the college went on a frenzy of attacks against operatives of the EFCC, who were on an authorized assignment.

He said, “The college’s Student Union President in concert with his colleagues and some staff of the institution, reportedly ignited violent confrontation with operatives of the EFCC.

“Two main entrance gates to the college were barricaded with a car believed to be owned by one of the lecturers of the college. The bus that conveyed operatives to the college was vandalized, even, as some students and staff of the college threw stones and dangerous objects at the vehicle.

“A rescue team that came successfully released the seven operatives held hostage by the riotous crowd.

“It is noteworthy that, operatives of the Commission exercised restraint in the face of the unprovoked attack and refrained from applying any force against the belligerent attackers.  No student or staff of the college was shot, as armed operatives merely fired into the air to disperse the unruly crowd,” he said.