APC flays Fayose over arrests of students leaders

The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has berated Governor Ayodele Fayose over the clampdown on students leaders in the state.

According to the opposition party, the National Vice-President, External, National Association of Nigerian Students, Tosin Ogunkuade, was arrested on the order of the Governor for addressing the crowd during the presidential campaign of the party in the state on Saturday.

A statement by the APC State Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, said Ogunkuade’s offence was that he highlighted the challenges facing Nigerian students, saying the present efforts by the government were not capable of redressing the hardships faced by the students in accessing quality education.

“He said to the applause of hundreds of students in attendance that Buhari presented a better hope for students in their educational pursuits,” Olatubosun said.

Olatubosun said thugs trailed Ogunkuade to‎ Ikogosi-Ekiti just 24 hours after he spoke, “where he and other students were attacked with deep machete cuts.

“After these students were attacked at Ikogosi, they ran to Efon-Alaye Police Station to report the matter. To our surprise, the police detained them before they were transferred to Aramoko-Ekiti Police Station.

“To our shock again, just this morning, one of their colleagues, Damilare Bewaji, who went to visit them at the Aramoko Police Station, was also arrested and detained by the police on the order of the governor,” he added.

Olatunbosun described the arrest as one in the series of other attacks on the APC sympathisers and supporters after the weekend campaign.

However, Fayose, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, announced that four APC thugs had been arrested by the police.

“The thugs were arrested with guns, axes, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons while trying to escape through Efon-Alaaye at about 3am today.

“The thugs were Odebunmi Idowu (from Ilupeju-Ekiti), Aliyu Yusuf (from Ibadan), Oladayo Obikoya (from Ikogosi) and Ogunkuade Oluwatosin (aka Jasper).

“They were arrested in a red-coloured Nissan Sunny with registration number Ekiti AH 176 EFY, and were moved to the Aramoko-Ekiti police station, where they were detained briefly before they were moved to the Police Headquarters, Ado-Ekiti,” the statement said.

The Ekiti Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Victor Babayemi, did not answer calls placed to his phone.

He had yet to respond to a text message from our correspondent as of press time.

Also, student union leaders contacted on Monday on the development kept mute .