The Vice-Chancellor of Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo State, Prof. Timothy Adebayo, on Monday, vowed to ensure justice is served in the case of a student of the school allegedly tortured to death by some of his school mates.
It was reported that a 200-level engineering student of the university, Alex Timileyi was beaten to death by his colleagues on Saturday over a claim that he stole a mobile phone.
The student was allegedly beaten to death inside a hostel known as Shepherd Inn on the school premises.
Addressing stakeholders on Monday, the vice chancellor said: “Nobody wants to face this type of very serious happening in his life. In my 34 years of experience in the university, and my fourth year as the Vice-Chancellor of this university, I did not pray for and I have never witnessed this. I have never thought of it happening”.
According to him, the incident unfolded on Saturday around 8:30 am, when the university’s security personnel discovered a student’s body in front of one of the hostel rooms.
“I asked him to take the boy to the health centre immediately with the hope that he was still alive. On getting there, when they looked at him, they could not handle the case. We found out that he was brought to the hospital in town dead. That is where the whole story began”, Adebayo said.
He added that the university administration launched an investigation which revealed a disturbing narrative.
“From our preliminary investigation, the first story we heard was that he was bullied by fellow students and that after the beating, they left him without telling anyone”, the Vice-Chancellor disclosed.
“Questions of where the hostel porter and the security were aroused. This is because we have porters and securities in each of our hostels. We got the porter arrested without interrogation to find out what actually happened,” he added.
He noted that the student assembly, known as ACUSA, provided a video recording of the perpetrators in the act.
“From the video, we are able to destring their names and faces. The first arrest by the police had about 20 of them. They were packed in my car, the student union car and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s car to the police station. They were handcuffed and made to sit on the floor”, the Vice-Chancellor revealed.
Emphasising the university’s zero-tolerance policy towards harassment and bullying, the Vice-Chancellor stated: “We do not condone any form of harassment or bully in our university. We have cases of students who were expelled from the university when they tried it”.
He added that the investigation progressed, the authorities were able to identify the key perpetrators responsible for the assault, hair-shaving, and video recording.
“As we speak, the boys are with the police in Oyo here and are being taken down to the state police headquarters, Iyaganku,” the Vice-Chancellor confirmed.
Adebayo expressed his profound sorrow and regret, adding: “To me, it is a very sad and heinous crime. I am not a policeman, neither am I a lawyer but whoever has blood running in his veins will know that what they did is not right”.
He added that the school has extended its support to the victim’s family in Abuja, dispatching a team led by the Registrar, accompanied by the Dean of Student Affairs and a priest.
Additionally, the Vice-Chancellor declared two days of lecture-free mourning to honour the departed student.
“I continue to say without the students, there won’t be any school. We cherished our students and their well-being. We called you to let you know what actually happened and the steps that we have taken so far. We cannot hide it”. the Vice-Chancellor affirmed.
