The gruesome murder of Professor Opeyemi Isaac Ajewole, a classmate of Vice President, Kashim Shettima at the University of Ibadan has drawn the attention of the Academic Staff Union of Universities ( ASUU) in the country.
The Vice President, who was shocked by the murder of Prof Ajewole, a lecturer in the Department of Forest Resources Management of the University penned down touching eulogies about the deceased who he described as a very great fellow.
University of Ibadan Chapter of the ASUU on Thursday asked the Inspector General of Police Alkali Baba to urgently assist the Oyo State Police Command with all logistics support needed to unravel and arrest the killers of Prof Ajewole of the Department of Social and Environmental Forestry Development of the premier University.
Ajewole was gruesomely gunned down by yet-to-be-identified assailants on the evening of Monday, 5 June 2023, in Ibadan, Oyo State.
In a release signed by the Chairman UI Chapter of ASUU, Prof Ayo Akinwole, the Union tasked President Bola Tinubu to take a passionate interest and ensure the security system unmasks the faces behind the murder of the Professor of Forest Economics and Urban Forestry.
“The hearts of every ASUU-UI member are bleeding so profusely as if pierced by swords. Our bones shook so tremendously as if our marrows were naked in the tundra region. We condemn in totality the gruesome murder of our comrade, Prof Opeyemi Isaac Ajewole and charge the security operatives to track down and apprehend the perpetrators of this dastardly act, with a view to unravelling the motive behind the incident as well as bringing the perpetrators to book, the union leader stated.
According to Akinwole, the only tribute which the death of Prof Ajewole deserves is that his killers are brought to justice and that Nigerians’ lives should matter to the Tinubu presidency
He noted that “Prof Ajewole’s gruesome murder again reminds us of how valueless human lives have become in our clime.”
He maintained that “death lurks in all imaginable and unimaginable corners of this country and comes cheaply. The Nigerian populace is constantly assailed by terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, assassination, hunger, unemployment, and many more insidious exterminators of our individual and collective dreams”.
He stated: “the situation of the Nigerian academics is even doubly precarious; they are prophets without any honour at home. Despite their immense contributions to national growth and development and recognitions in the international circle, Nigerian academia are scorned and shabbily treated by the Nigerian state and the public for being unrepentant patriots. It is, therefore, disheartening that academics who cultivate, preserve, and disseminate knowledge for the advancement and development of the society will become victims of societal malady to such an extent as to be targeted for elimination.
The Union wishes to use this teary occasion of Prof Ajewole’s sudden death to call on the Nigerian state to resolutely tackle the problem of insecurity in the country, apprehend the killers of Prof Ajewole and punish them most appropriately. This is the least tribute that this nation can pay to our fallen hero and friend- Prof Opeyemi Isaac Ajewole.”
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