THE governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has denied reports that he once poured acid on a fellow student as an undergraduate.
He said he, on the contrary, drew the attention of the school security and took the victim for first aid treatment, but added that the identity of the culprit was not known.
Ize-Iyamu spoke on an online Television programme monitored by our correspondent.
He said he was rusticated, along with some other people linked to the incident because the person who perpetrated the act was not known.
This, he said, made him graduate after six years in school, adding that he was a member of the Pirates confraternity as an undergraduate.
The APC governorship candidate said, “When I was in the University, I was a member of the Pirates Confraternity. We didn’t look at it as a cult then. It was not the way it is now. Some people were already coming in with tendencies that created problems.
“We had this group that was very confrontational. One evening, somebody reported to us that they beat up a final year student who was also close to us and they mentioned the names of those involved.”
He added, “Don’t also forget that I was a student union leader, very prominent in the Students Union Congress. Myself ad some persons who heard about this complaint said we should go and see the people concerned and talk to them.
“We went there and met with the people concerned. They opened the door for us and we were discussing the matter under a very cordial atmosphere, only for some people to come in, and before we knew, it, there was smoke in the whole place and somebody shouted acid.”
Ize-Iyamu said people were shouting and screaming, adding that it was then he realised that somebody had poured acid on another person.
“I rushed to the security post, I brought them in and we took the young man to get first aid treatment,” he said.
He said, “The school set up an enquiry and the person affected admitted that I was the one who brought security agents and that I was able to take him in for medical attention and I asked who poured it. He said he didn’t really know, but that when we came in, they knew we were final year students, and they were also old students, and we had a cordial interaction, but that some people came in.
“He knows the face of the person who poured the acid but does not know his name and nobody appeared to know the name and the University said since you people don’t want to mention the name, we are going to sanction all of you involved. Before we knew it, they expelled us, but they said they were expelling us for belonging to a proscribed organisation.”
“But the long and short of it is that we were on it for two years till 1986 when the Senate held a meeting and said these guys had been punished enough, that if you really look at the records, they were not the ones that committed the offence, and we were called back.”
