OAU Students Protest: Osun Deputy Governor Distances Self From Attack On NANS Officials

By Olalekan Olawale

The Osun State Deputy Governor, Prince Kola Adewusi has on Wednesday distanced himself from the purported attacks on some members of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Osun JCC during a protest against hike in tuition fee by the students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife on Tuesday.

This is contained in a statement released by the press secretary to the Deputy Governor, Mr Goke Awoyemi on Wednesday in Osogbo.

According to the statement, the attention of the office of the Deputy Governor, Osun State, His excellency, Prince Kola Adewusi has been drawn to an online report credited to the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), published by the online edition of Osun Defender, insinuating that Prince Kola Adewusi attacked protesting students of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-ife, who were protesting the hike in their tuition fee, by sending political thugs to attack them on Tuesday evening.

The statement read in part; “I wish to state unequivocally that thuggery and hooligalism have never been associated with Prince Kola Adewusi, Osun state Deputy Governor, before, during and after his rise to political stardom, against his political opponents, not to talk of innocent students who were exercising their fundamental human rights as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The story is a carefully prepared diet of fiction, put together by fifth colomnists with the aim of causing unrest in Osun state and propagated by those who are envious of the cordial relationship that exists between the Deputy Governor, Prince Kola Adewusi and his peace loving principal Senator Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke, who is by the grace of God the executive governor of Osun state”.

The statement stressed further that the story should be discontenanced with.