Democratic Socialist Movement

For Struggle, Solidarity and Socialism in Nigeria

By - DSM

OAU, Ile-Ife, 20th anniversary of campus murders

This year is the 20th anniversary of the killings of 5 students, including Secretary General of the Students Union and a member of the DSM, on July 10 1999 by campus cultists at Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife.

Activities were organised by students of the university this year to honour the memory of the victims.

The article below was originally published 10 years ago on the 10th anniversary of the carnage.

July 10 Cult Attack
10 Years After, It is Still a Cry for Justice

July 10, 2009

Peluola Adewale, Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) Nigeria

It is ten years today when some armed cultists stormed Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife and killed five students in the wee hours of July 10, 1999. The slain students were George ‘Yemi’ Iwilade (Afrika), the then Secretary General of OAU Students Union, Tunde Oke, a member of Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), Efe Ekede, Eviano Ekelemu and Yemi Ajiteru. Lanre Adeleke Legacy, the then President of the OAU Students Union and a member of the DSM, escaped by a whisker by quickly running out of his room having heard the gunshots apparently aimed at Ajiteru who slept outside a few rooms away.

There was a serious allegation that these blood-thirsty campus gangsters, members of Neo-Black Movement (Black Axe), were sponsored by the then Vice-Chancellor of the university, Wale Omole, who was later disgraced out of office. Omole had had a serious running battle with the Students Union led by Lanre Adeleke over independent student unionism, welfare conditions, financial recklessness and reinstatement of Anthony Fasayo and other student activists who had been politically victimized since 1995. Indeed, one of the cultists, Kazeem Bello, aka Kato, confessed that Wale Omole had a hand in their July 10 dastardly operation.

The killing of the Ife 5 was not the first that had been linked to a devilish vice-chancellor. Few years earlier Williams Obong, the General Secretary of University of Benin Students Union, was murdered in broad daylight by cultists widely believed to have been sponsored by the vice-chancellor. Besides, it is an open secret that campus cultists had patrons within and outside the campuses.

Rise of Cult Violence on Campus

It should be noted that campus cultism had not always been pronouncedly violent until 1980s, and this change coincided with period when governments started unleashing serious attacks on university education. This began with the introduction of some outrageous charges and later, in 1986, the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), which have now been transformed into a general neo-liberal economic programme. In order to repress the resistance of students against commercialization of education and other anti-poor policies, the government and university authorities employed the service of campus cultists who by nature of their organisation abhor mass, democratic activities by students.

The social background of elements who used to be members of cult groups prepared them for such dastardly activities. They were mostly from the rich and middle class families, and therefore did not really have problems with anti-poor policies of the government and university management, for instance how to pay the contentious charges being imposed on students. Today, there are students from poor background joining cult groups. They largely do because campus cultism provides a veritable platform to raise money through extortion and other criminal activities. The more fertile ground was then provided for the growth of campus cultism by the recommendations of Abisoye panel which were aimed at weakening students unionism on campuses. This panel was set up in the wake of nationwide student protest, with solidarity from Labour, against state murder of some students at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, in 1986.

Brutal clashes among different cult groups are also a common feature on campuses as a result of deadly rivalry among them over turf control.

Wale Omole is Culpable

However, while Omole’s direct link to the OAU carnage could be said to be just an allegation, it was undisputable fact that his administration created enabling atmosphere for the attack. For the eight years he spent in office, Omole did not show any seriousness in fight against campus cultism rather it was commonplace for cultists apprehended by students to get their way back to the university unscratched. While student activists were expelled for leading students in various demands, it is on record that no cultist was punished by the Omole led management.

The kid-glove treatment of the menace of campus cultism by Omole climaxed on March 7, 1999 when the OAU students led by George Yemi Iwilade Afrika apprehended some members of Black Axe cult group, viz. Larry Obichei, IK Imordi, Kanmi Ogundipe, etc., with arms and ammunition that included a AK 47 rifle with 58 rounds of ammunition and handed them over to the authorities for onward transfer to police. At the behest of Wale Omole, an Ile-Ife Magistrate Court discharged and acquitted these cultists for want of evidence! This was because the weapons were destroyed by the police in connivance with university management who also did not put up representation at the court. Unfortunately, students were not then around having been sent home after staging a protest to demand reinstatement of the politically victimized student leaders. As usual, these cultists resurfaced on campus to continue their studies and, of course, their heinous activities. The March 7 event turned out to be the precursor of the July 10 attack as the cultists had been emboldened by the court ruling and patronage of the Vice-Chancellor.

The OAU cultists had felt humiliated not only by the March event but also the fact they were not given breathing space in the university, unlike most other higher institutions, by the mass and organized resistance of students against them. It should not be a mere coincidence that while July 7 is the Founders Day of Black Axe, the cultists struck terror in Ife on July 10 in order to leave their imprint where they and other cult groups had hitherto woefully failed.

Still Crying for Justice

Ten years after the carnage, the relatives and associates of the victims as well as students of OAU are still crying out for justice. In the wake of the attack, the mass of students fought back and apprehended some of the cultists around the country and handed them over to the police for prosecution. Three of them, viz. Efosa Idahosa, Kazeem Bello and Emeka Ogwuaju, were arraigned in court but later discharged and acquitted on October 29, 2002 by Justice Rabiu Yusuff of the State High Court, Iwo, Osun State. The presiding judge claimed to have based the judgement on the alleged inability of the prosecution to establish any case against the accused persons.

This judgement which was a clear case of travesty of justice, runs contrary to the finding and report of Okoi Itam Judicial Panel of Enquiry set up in 1999 by the Federal Government to investigate the killings. The report strongly suspects the involvement of the three freed gangsters in the massacre and recommends immediate arrest of those that are at large among the culprits. For the past ten years the police have made no effort to track down these cultists. If the trio had no case to answer, we deserved to know the culprits. But till date, the police have not produced those responsible for the killings.

It is clear that the difference between the outcomes of court trial and judicial panel could have been borne out of the legal representation. The former was handled by the Osun state government while the latter by the students’ lawyers led by Adeyinka Olumide Fusika of Citipoint Chambers. The poor representation by the state prosecutors could be either out of sheer incompetence or subterranean collaboration with the cultists. It will not be out of place to conclude, however, that the state worked deliberately to free the accused. This is because for about seven years after the judgement no efforts have been made to appeal it at higher court despite the consistent demands to that effect from the students’ union and other organisations.

The failure of the government to bring to book the culprits of the July 10 massacre has exposed the insincerity of its much-touted crusade against the menace. The October 29 2002 acquittal has since further strengthened the confidence of the cult gangsters that they could commit any offence, no matter how heinous, with impunity. The cult groups have since grown in leaps and bounds, and extended their monstrous activities beyond campus to communities and secondary schools.

We call on Labour, education workers’ unions, Nigeria Bar Association, human rights groups, student bodies and pro-masses’ organizations to lend their voices to the cry for justice for the victims of July 10.

Some Lessons of July 10

The July 10 has raised some important lessons that, despite any frustration about what has happened since, must not be lost on students and workers as we mark the anniversary. It should be recalled that July 10 was not the first time the cultists had unleashed terrors and massacred students on campus. But it was the first killings that attracted the spirited fight back by students and drew the national attention. Indeed, July 10 was a watershed in struggle against campus cultism to the extent that the Federal Government gave an outlandish directive to heads of higher institutions to eradicate campus cultism by September 1999! This was possible because it took place at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

This university had an enviable tradition of militant student unionism because of the presence of left organizations like DSM and others which always sought to raise political consciousness among students, mobilize them for actions in defence of the interests and generally seek to give direction to the students’ union. This explains why the cultists do not have field days in Ife unlike most other campuses. It is also apposite to recall that the OAU Students Union, at the time of July 10, was led by members of DSM who were able to give correct shape and direction to the fight-back. It is therefore imperative to build left organizations like DSM on campuses as an important element in the strategy to combat campus cultism. It should however be stressed that DSM does not exist as a mere campus organisation, but as a working class conscious organisation that links the immediate demands on campus and education sector to the general struggle of working masses against neo-liberal attacks, and raise socialist consciousness among students and education workers.

It is significant to note the campus cultism thrives more in schools without independent student unionism. In OAU for instance their activities have always been contained by independent students union. It was observed that different cult groups had gained ground on the campus in the period of interregnum between 1996 and 1998 when Wale Omole had banned Student Union activities. Indeed, the first major activity of the new leadership of the Union in 1998 was to lead students to crush the initiation ceremony of Eiye Confraternity. The cultists caught red-handed were handed over to the management who, as usual, did not do anything to them but rather allow them to continue their academic activities.

Therefore, to tame the monster of cultism across campuses there is the need to build genuine mass based students’ movements that will be a counterweight to cultism. In this regard, the ban and proscription of student unions on many campuses is a deliberate attempt by the authorities of the tertiary institutions to give freehand to cult groups which are controlled by them to repress genuine students’ activists. This is why campaign against attack on democratic students’ unionism must be championed by all students and supported by workers within and outside campus.

Another important issue further strengthened by July 10 is the demand for democratization of decision making bodies in education sector with elected representatives of education workers and students on committees, senate, council and parastatals. If this had been in place in OAU most of the issues like victimization of student leaders and financial impropriety that put students and Omole led management at daggers drawn would probably not have reared their heads.

As we mark 10th anniversary of the July 10 massacre, Labour and pro-masses’ organizations should join the fight against cultism. We should always link the campaign against campus cultism to the demands for independent students’ unionism, an end to culture of victimization of student and workers activists, adequate funding of education and democratization of decision making processes.

There is need to defeat the anti-poor neo-liberal programme in order to, in addition to ensure provision of basic needs for all and infrastructural development, remove the very material condition that makes government and school authorities to find the need for the service of campus gangsters so as to defeat student resistance. This could be achieved with the formation of a genuine mass based working class people party with socialist programme to wrest power from the thieving ruling elite at all levels of government.