- Attack residents, journalists
For the second day running, hundreds of students of the Osun State University in Osogbo on Wednesday went on the rampage as they protested the ritual killing of their colleague, a 400 level student of Microbiology, Oluwafemi Timileyin Shonibare, by some residents of their university community at the Oke Baale area.
Shonibare, who had been declared missing since last week, was found dead in a bush on Tuesday. He was butchered by his assailants for money rituals before his remains were dumped in the bush.
When one of the arrested suspects led a team of policemen to Suzzy area, where his decomposing remains were discovered, students of the university broke down in tears as they stormed the suspect’s house in the area and set it ablaze.
Meanwhile, the Osun State Police command had on Tuesday paraded three men suspected to have killed Shonibare. The suspects are Sakariyahu Abdulrafiu, a 19-year-old apprentice herbalist and two of his friends, Ayuba Ibrahim, 24 and Yusuff Kareem, 18.
The Osun State Commissioner of Police, Mr Olufimihan Adeoye, while parading the suspects, said they carried out the crime on June 26, at about 7:30pm, at the Oke-Bale Area of Osogbo.
He said the suspects conspired and killed Shonibare with a pestle before the victim’s head and two wrists were cut off and his remains were dumped in the bush.
But there was apprehension in Osogbo on Wednesday, when angry students dressed in black attires, mobilised themselves and stormed major areas in a violent protest against the killing of Shonibare and the frequent cases of students’ disappearance in the university community.
They prevented a free flow of traffic at Oja-Oba, Ola-Iya, Old Garage, among other areas, while they pelt residents with missiles.
The protesting students also besieged the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists at Olaiya and beat up a student-journalist, Miss Seun Adesokan, while they harrassed some other journalists for attempting to take pictures of their demonstration.
