Scores of aggrieved students of the Osun State University main campus in Osogbo on Thursday shunned their lectures and took to the streets in protest against the disappearance of one of them, a 400 level student of the Microbiology Department, Oluwafemi Oluwatimilehin Shonibare.
Shonibare, a final year student, was to have stepped out of his Harmony Hostel at Suzzy area at about 10pm in Osogbo on Monday to buy pepper, which he was going to use to prepare soup but had since then not been found.
The undergraduate’s disappearance came about nine months after two 400 level students of the Osogbo campus of the university disappeared and their whereabouts had since remained unknown.
While armed with placards bearing different inscriptions, the protesting students stormed the premises of the state broadcasting station at Oke Baale area, asking the management of the medium to report the disappearance in order to aid Shonibare’s possible location.
Speaking on behalf of the student protesters, a final year undergraduate said, “We gathered that he (Shonibare) went out to get pepper to add to the soup he was cooking and had since that Monday remained missing. We thought he had gone to read because we have been preparing for our tests and his radio was on in his room that night. We want you (broadcasting station) to assist us in constantly broadcasting the disappearance of our colleague in order for him to be found. We are tired of reccurrence of cases of missing students in our school.”
Addressing the students, one of the top staff of the broadcast medium, Mr. kola Akanbi, asked the students to remain calm and assured that necessary efforts would be made to find the missing student.
Reacting to the incessant cases of missing students in the university, the state Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Mr. Philips Ayodele, disclosed that the command had met with the school management and other stakeholders.
Ayodele assured that the missing students would be found.
He enjoined journalists to also assist in getting needful intelligence that could lead to the location of the missing students.
