By Saka Laaro, Ilorin
Normalcy has returned to the Kwara State University (KWASU) and Malete community after the recent unrest resulting from students protest on the raid of the campus and Malete by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Nigerian NewsDirect reports that the EFCC had on Thursday, Feb. 22 said it has arrested 50 KWASU students for alleged involvement in internet fraud.
The students thereafter protested the arrest which led to a riot that saw the students destroying some property within the police station.
Our Correspondent who visited Malete yesterday afternoon to ascertain the situation of things, reports that people and students were carrying out their daily activities.
However, officers of the Nigeria Police Force at Malete Divisional Police Station barricaded the road in front of the station to check the movement of people.
A visit to the institution showed students of the University currently writing their Harmattan examination for 2023/2024 academic session.
A 300 level student of Civil Engineering department, Hikmah Ayinla, said she is not aware of any unrest in the university as they are presently writing their harmattan examinations.
Also speaking, a 300 level student of Library and Information Sciences, Ifeoluwa Micho said though she doesn’t have details of the unrest, but it has not affected the ongoing examination in the school.
When contacted, the Acting Director of University Relations, Dr Saeedat Aliyu, said they woke up to the news of EFCC operatives sting operations of Malete community where a sizable number of people, including students were arrested for their involvement in cybercrime.
Dr Aliyu, noted that the riot which took place outside the school was caused when some students and members of the community sighted a vehicle that escorted some people from Ila Orangun which they assumed that it was another sting operations by some security personnel.
She further noted that as against rumuors that there were casualties, nobody was shot or lost his or her life during the mayhem.
‘’The Acting Vice chancellor and his management team swung to action and de-escalated the crisis, because the university has zero tolerance for social vices and would work with relevant agencies to stamp out criminality and other vices.”Dean Students Affairs of the University, Prof. AbdulRauf Ambali, said precautionary measures had been put in place to forestall reoccurrence of such incident.
He said meetings were held with the managements of the EFCC as well as National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on the need to always carry the institution along in such operations.
Prof. Ambali added that most of the students that participated in the riot were dismissed students, parading themselves as students of the University