On Tuesday, the 19th of April 2016, the above caption was reported in Instablog9ja and some online news that a female student of Abraham Adesanya Polytechnic, Ijebu Igbo was mercilessly beaten by soldiers and was later taken to a police station where the Rector of the Polytechnic, Prof. (Mrs) Jumoke Bilesanmi – Awoderu prevented her lawyer from having access to her.
May we quickly say here that there was no iota of truth in the whole story. The entire story as reported was concocted in order to get cheap sympathy from the members of the public. For record purposes, the true story is as follows:
On Wednesday 9th March, 2016, the Polytechnic commenced the first semester examination for 2015/16 session. Some aggrieved students, who have neither paid their school fees nor registered for the session were prevented from writing the examinations and for reasons best known to them, they came back that same night and burnt down the ICT Centre and the Academic Affairs office of the Polytechnic to obliterate records.
As a result of this, the government ordered that the Polytechnic should be shut down for one month. However, on the 11th of April 2016, the Polytechnic was re-opened and the students were asked to pay the sum of N10,000 as damages. Some officials of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), National Association of Polytechnic Students ( NAPS), the Polytechnic’s Students’ Union Government (SUG) came to the Polytechnic and pleaded with the management to allow the students pay only the sum of N 5,000.
The Polytechnic magnanimously conceded to this request and a deadline was set for payment. The deadline was extended again till Friday, 15th April 2016. Majority of the students complied with this instruction and those who could not pay on Friday were graciously allowed to pay on Saturday 16th April, 2016 . The examinations were to start on Monday 18th April, 2016.
While the students who have paid the said sum of N5,000 have settled down in the examination hall, those who refused to pay came around to disrupt the examinations.
The security operatives who were earlier invited to ensure law and order within the period of the examinations asked the students to leave. They all obeyed and left quietly except Folashade Leshi who refused to leave. She claimed to be a married woman, who is well connected and that the soldiers will lose their jobs if they dare stop her from writing the examination. The other students who have not paid like her were hailing her as she was confronting the soldiers. As she was about to force her way in, she was resisted from entering and to the greatest surprise of everyone, she pounced on the soldier and rough-handled his uniform thereby removing the buttons. A senior colleague came also to intervene, she pounced on him too and tore his cloth. Everything happened like a drama. She was arrested and taken immediately to the nearest police station.
The pictures she displayed showing wounds on her body were fake and designed to attract public sympathy.
There was also no iota of truth in the rumour that the Rector prevented her from having access to her lawyer. The question is : How is it possible for the Rector who was at the Polytechnic to prevent a suspect at the police station from having access to a legal representation?
For those who displayed manipulated pictures on the various social media, it is on record that the lady in question, Folashade Leshi who was shown to have been terribly brutalized was on the campus on Tuesday 19th April, 2016 to pay her N 5,000 damage fee, signed the undertaking just like all her other colleagues and continued with her examinations on Wednesday 20th April, 2016. This no doubt confirms the fact that the pictures displayed on the social media were manipulated to dent the image of the Polytechnic.
The Polytechnic commends the security operatives involved for their patience and professionalism and urged the students to be law abiding and obey all rules and regulations of the Polytechnic in order to have a smooth academic calendar.
Ayo Balogun Esq
FOR: Abraham Adesanya Polytechnic