Some students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, have accused the school management of forcibly evicting them from halls of residence.
The decision to evict the students, it was learnt, followed a directive from the university administration through the Dean, Division of Student Affairs, to hall managers to send the students out of the halls of residence.
According to findings by our correspondent, the school had been on a long break since February 17, and is now preparing to start a new academic session for 2018/2019 in April. But some students, especially Engineering and Science students, who are going through special programmes such as the Students’ Work Experience Programme, Students’ Industrial Work Experience Scheme, education students undergoing Teaching Practice and also graduating students writing and preparing for the defence of their final projects, are still living inside the halls.
A female student, residing in Moremi Hall, one of the halls of residence on campus, told our correspondent under the condition of anonymity, that the hostel management only gave them a 24-hour notice before throwing out their belongings.
She said, “It is very unfair that the hall warden instructed us to pack our belongings within a short period of time; the time didn’t even elapse before they started throwing our things out. To make matters worse, she even threatened to burn our belongings if we didn’t comply.
“Despite the fact that we have been enduring the harsh and terrible living conditions on campus, they still came to disrupt our academic activities. After all, they don’t expect us to go and rent houses off campus, because we paid last session’s accommodation fees.”
A student on teaching practice, who was driven out by security operatives from Alumni Hall, told our correspondent that some of her belongings got damaged while they were being evicted from the hostels.
He also claimed that he could not pack all his belongings before his room was sealed.
“I hope when the halls reopen, I would be able to recover my belongings that were locked up. How do they expect final year students to cope when they are about defending their projects? At this critical time, they should have given us a little time to finish our various programmes before throwing out our things,” he said.
According to the Secretary of the Students’ Action Committee of the institution, Samson Oyedeji , “while we have warned the Hall Warden of Moremi Hall to desist from such a barbaric act of burning property of students in the hall, students should not tolerate this inhumane attack.
“It is important to reiterate that students will not hesitate to hold Hall Wardens, Dean, Division of Student Affairs and the University Administration responsible for any damage or loss of students’ property and, nevertheless, we have instructed students in case of any issue to notify our security committee.”
OAU authorities react
OAU Public Relations Officer, Mr. Biodun Olanrewaju, said that the eviction of students from halls of residence was not illegal because they were not compelled by any law to stay behind in the hostels after the end of any session.
Olanrewaju said, “There is nothing like illegal eviction in this case. The students paid for a session and the moment the session ends, students are expected to leave the hostel so that the management will be able to do things like renovation and put things in order for those who will be coming in. So, it is childish of the students to say that they were illegally evicted.
“After staying in the hostels for a whole session, what are they still waiting behind for? Do they want to have the rooms for life? No! They paid for a particular session and the moment that session ends, the payment expires, except they are saying that when they write examinations for a session, they want to repeat that
session.
“So, if they believe that after writing examination for a whole session and they are leaving a class for another, they should also know that they must leave the hostel for another as they progress, because they paid for a particular session. Infact, we have indulged them this far. What our rules say is that the moment they finish writing their last paper, we should have asked them to leave the hostel the following day. But they have finished examination since last month, February; this is March. We have allowed them this far. So, where is the illegality coming from? We did not even evict them, we only asked them to leave.
That is just it.
As regards the students on industrial attachment programmes like SIWES, teaching practice and others, Olanrewaju said there was no law or edict binding on them to be in the hostel for those programmes.
“Now, if the university has been accommodating them and indulging them in still staying in the hostel, that should come from their dean. I mean the dean of their respective faculties, who would have notified the university management,” he said.
