Students of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Oyo State, have protested the killing of an ex-student by suspected cultists.
The deceased, Ahmed Olalekan, popularly called Maku, was shot dead on Monday in the Fanawole area of Apete, for campaigning vigorously against cultism and inhibiting the cultists from operating in the institution.
He was said to have been on industrial training after he completed his National Diploma in Urban and Regional Studies at the institution in preparation for his Higher National Diploma.
Maku was said to have belonged to The Polytechnic Ibadan Students’ Forum, an anti-cultism group that comprises students and ex-students.
His attackers Monday night, stormed his residence, shot him at a close range and also used an ax to lacerate his neck to ensure that he was truly dead, before leaving the scene.
Public relations officer of the students’ forum, Adeyemi Ridwan, told journalists that the cultists had threatened to strike and the forum informed the chief security officer of the institution:
“We approached the chief security officer of the school but he did not act on the information. Apata, who killed Maku, was caught in the school with an axe but the CSO asked him to go.
They brought pump-action gun to the school and started shooting. The school is aware of this.
“I left the school with Maku on Monday and when we got to Apete, he said he wanted to go and rest at home, so he alighted from the commercial motorcycle we took from school.
Five minutes later, a lady called me and said that Maku had been killed by cultists who shot him in the neck in his apartment.”
Another member of the forum, Bakare Ademuyiwa, recounted how he received a message from a member of a cult group on August 6, 2018, saying the deceased ex-student did not allow them to operate in the institution.
According to him, he pleaded with them not to attack Olalekan because the forum “is an anti-cultism group that has existed for many years in the school.
I was shocked on Monday night when I received a call while watching the Premier League match between Manchester United and Tottenham that Maku had been killed by two Aye Confraternity members who attacked him in his apartment at Apete. One of the killers is known as Apata.”
The police public relations officer in the state, Mr. Adekunle Ajisebutu, said: “The situation has been brought under control following immediate deployment of policemen to maintain law and order there.”
He stated that some arrests have been made and exhibits such as axes and cutlasses have been recovered, adding that the commissioner of police in the state, Mr. Abiodun Odude, “has directed that discrete investigation into the incident be carried out and suspects arrested to be charged to court.”
