OAU Law Graduate Chronicles ’29 Slaps’, Other Assaults Suffered From Military Officers in Ekiti

A law graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, simply identified as Adebiyi, has narrated how he suffered physical assault from the military officers whose name tags were not on them while the assault was being carried out last week Saturday.

Vreporters gathered that, Fashoyin was in Ekiti to observe the National Election of the Federation of Ekiti State Student Union which was slated to hold on 12th of April, 2025 at Igbara-odo, Ekiti state.

Fashoyin, a former president of the union, was at the venue of the election alongside other undergraduates from OAU, federal university, oye-ekiti, and Ekiti state university among others.

The young lawyer accused the chairperson of Igbara-odo local council development area, Mrs. Bukola Olowolaju of orchestrating the assault.

The Chronicle reads:

Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken: Tales of my Adventure in Igbara-odo; and the Spectacular Mess caused by the LCDA Chairman, Mrs. Bukola Olowolaju

Typically, I open my write ups with a quote from some historical figure of great significance, but seeing as I have been a principal actor in what is, perhaps, the most momentous occasion in Ekiti Youth Leadership in recent times, I shall quote myself:

“An Ekiti son is first an omoluabi, but also Omo wa Omo ekun. He respects his elders to the point of near servitude, but resists injustice no matter the cost.”

Yesterday, the cost was me, a total of 29 slaps, a threat to break my hands to prevent me from writing, and a threat to my life. The opportunity cost? A measly one hundred thousand Naira (₦100,000). Yet, if I was to choose again between accepting ₦100,000 and keeping silent in the face of a blatant disregard for the concept of democracy and human rights, or 29 slaps, and all the accompanying threats for speaking the truth and standing for what is right, then I say, “GIVE ME MY SLAPS” and I would say it as many times as the choice is tossed into my laps.

I do not intend to waste your time, I know you want to know what happened, and I shall explain every single thing down to every tiny detail. Who stood for what? Who ran away? And the why behind each question.

Following the scheduling of the Federation of Ekiti State Student Union National Headquarters Election for Saturday, 12th April , 2025 at Igbara-odo, Ekiti State, I, as a former senator and president of the Federation of Ekiti State Students Union, Obafemi Awolowo University Chapter, mulled over the decision as to whether or not to grace the venue with my presence.

Ordinarily, I have made it my policy to avoid FESSU national elections as my tenure expired in 2021. However, being that my brother, the distinguished Senate Leader, and incumbent president of FESSU OAU had informed me that some individuals were intent on causing chaos there, what had once been a clear decision for me became an uncertain choice: should I stay or should I go?

It is a well known fact that any transparent election is held at an open venue, and the scheduling of the election at Igbara-odo, opposite the police station, put my senses on high alert. I began to think about the safety of my brother and other OAU and Ekiti students at the venue and quickly made my way to them with one intention: to de-escalate the sort of tension that characterizes National Elections.

When I got there, I immediately got to work and soon enough, what had been a rowdy atmosphere became calm, the senators organized themselves into a single file, gallerians moved back and the election was set to begin. The mood at the venue was clear, these students had traveled great distances for the purpose of conducting the election on one hand, and the national president, as well as the policemen acting under the influence of a woman- who I did not know at that point to be Mrs. Olowolaju, the chairman of the LCDA- were intent on postponing the election.

This intent baffled me, the senators were clear that if the election held 10 times, they would vote against the preference of the incumbent national president- Benjamin Onileowo- who had the ears of the LCDA chairman, Mrs. Olowolaju.

This led to a stiff rebuff of their attempts to postpone the election on various flimsy grounds, including the absconding of the electoral chairman who was chosen by the national president at a kangaroo Congress held at Ekiti State University where he had earlier used security agencies to chase away and detain students and senators of the union. The electoral chairman’s act of racing away was hilarious to me and reminiscent of the biblical saying that the wicked runneth when no one pursues them.

Yet, it did not seem like much of a problem. Due to the actions of certain police officers on ground who seemed less interested in the elections and more interested in peace, I was able to address the teeming crowd of students who were growing restless and within minutes, everything was calm once more. The senate reconvened and appointed an ad-hoc commission to conduct the election, which would seem like the sensible thing to do under any circumstances. Mind you, the national president himself had become the national president under very similar circumstances.

Unfortunately, while students were once more peaceful, the National President was seen whispering into the ears of the LCDA chairman, Mrs. Olowolaju who then asked students who had come from far and wide to disperse. You could imagine my shock. She was told promptly that she wasn’t a student and that the election ought to proceed since all requirements were met and the venue was peaceful.

She then uttered a few words ,”I have told you people to go. If you stay, you will face the consequences.”

What were the consequences? While the ad-hoc staff had gone to procure voting materials, the entire hitherto peaceful atmosphere was thrown into further panic. I had erroneously believed that the panic was occasioned by the arrival of thugs or cultists only to be met with a shocking discovery; it was not thugs who were chasing the unarmed students who had previously been on a straight line, it was soldiers.

Everywhere I looked, students were jumping fences, running into bushes and scampering away at the presence of the menacing soldiers who shot into the air and chased at students. My brother, who had been the primary reason for my presence at the venue, stood his ground, explaining to the soldiers that there was no ground for this unnecessary violent approach. As you can imagine, he was slapped and a soldier even attempted to hit him with a whip, but as a true Ekiti boy, he held the whip.

He was eventually whisked into a van by the men of the Ilawe Police Station under the orders of their DPO. Whether this was to protect him as the DPO claims, or to remove him from the venue, we shall never really know, but he was detained.

I, who had also bolted at the sounds of gunshots being fired by a particular soldier who had taken off his name tag, then contacted my father who asked me about my brother’s whereabouts. Naturally, my protective instincts led me back to the venue as I was determined to find my brother. I was accompanied by a young man who I had only met earlier on my way to Igbara-odo in the bus. I later found out that he was the president of a faculty at the Federal University Oye Ekiti.

The young man bravely accompanied me to speak to one of the soldiers whom we had assumed would be reasonable and help us sort the confusion out. LOL!

We were led to the election venue and that was where the battery began. After being slapped severally, we were made to sit at the edge of the gutter alongside four other students who had been severely assaulted to the point of facial injuries.

I, myself, was slapped multiple times by multiple officers but even though I could not see everyone who slapped me, I saw some, and I counted all: 29 in total.

The LCDA chairman had stood by while all this happened. Later, I was taken to her and she gladly allowed me and the other students to be rough-handled some more, until she discovered that I was from a relatively prominent family. Then, she soft pedaled and asked that I be separated from the rest. By this time, of course, my father and my uncle who I had alerted of the situation earlier now began to mount pressure. She received calls from them and then tried to “make peace” by uttering words like, “I’m a mother…” and so on. She explained to me, as though she were speaking to a child, that she had intended to give me and the students there ₦100,000 to “enjoy” ourselves and postpone the election.

I was furious! Surrounded by the officers, I could do nothing or say nothing but nod my head at the absurdities I was hearing. She then began to caution the soldiers, some of whom were still trying to assault me that I was her “leader’s” child. I promptly asked for the release of the FUOYE student who had accompanied me and he was brought to our location, away from the other students who were still being beaten and forced to sing humiliating songs, one with lyrics that said, “the Nigerian army is not your friend.”

Mrs. Bukola Olowolaju then proceeded to advise us on the virtues of staying away from trouble and respect for elders as though it was us who had come to an election venue armed or who had disrupted the peace. One of the policemen at the venue, who had earlier witnessed my addresses to the students, kept vouching for the fact that I had been a peacemaker throughout. That was probably why I wasn’t beaten to the point of injury. Afterward, Mrs. Olowolaju asked for my course of study and when I told her I was a lawyer by training, a soldier who was nearby then advised me to stay away from human rights activism and offered me some of his whiskey. Of course, I drank a cover from it under duress. He then asked me to shake him and said we were now friends. I did so and laughed inwardly.

Another soldier then threatened to break my hands to prevent me from writing seeing as I was a lawyer. I observed him quietly, ashamed for the uniform he was wearing and proud of my training as a member of the noble legal profession. Even without a wig and a gown, I had truly acted as a minister in the temple of justice and I was proud of myself.

Ultimately, I was taken from the venue to meet my brother alongside some of the other students, after which we began our journey home. All the while I wondered, what was the fate of those whose parents had less influence than mine? Today, I was reminded of the fact that people misuse power at any level, and that is one fundamental problem we have as a people. But I remembered my brother standing upright despite the slaps and the whips, the young man who barely knew me but followed me into the jaws of assault and battery, and every other person who had been maltreated by those sworn to protect them. I smiled! In the bleak winter of their barbarian behaviour, stood the sunlight of strength, resilience and an expression of their indomitable human spirit.

So, even as my eyes struggle with sleep, I write this for those who ran, for those who were beaten, for those who got injured from running or being beaten; for the innocent indigenes and residents of Igbara-odo who have been traumatised by today’s events; for my brother- the brave nerd from Ise-Ekiti, grilled into the aluta of Great Ife; and for everyone who has ever stood up to injustice in the face of overwhelming might and power. I write to tell you that as long as we do not stop saying no to ₦100,000 and all it represents, as long as we are not afraid to brave 29 slaps and all it represents, then there is hope.

I write, also, to the soldiers who took off their name tags so they could perpetuate their shameful actions, to the LCDA chairman who summoned them for no just cause, and to everything they represent, to the slappers, to the runners who had no cause, to the president who connived to bring security operatives to attack the students whom he ought to have protected at the cost of whatever amount of slaps. I write to tell you that not only should you be ashamed, but you should be aware that as long as a few of us, who are not afraid to say no to tyranny, still breathe, then there will always be a watchdog, and there will always be hope. You will not become the standard for the behaviour of Ekiti, or indeed Nigeria. We shall write, we shall speak, we shall insist, we shall be assaulted, we shall fight, and if necessary, we shall die, as long as the price of liberty will be paid, but we shall never stop to pursue liberty and the defence of the principles of democracy.

Unequivocally, I shall wear the memory of the slaps as a badge of honour, as a reminder of this adventure, and as a motivator to do this as long as I breathe.

Until we meet again, whether with you as an oppressor or as a repentant, I remain;

FRIZZY