The University of Ibadan (UI), chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, to offer all necessary assistance to the Oyo State Police Command, so that the killers of Prof. Opeyemi Ajewole would be unraveled and arrested.
This was contained in a statement signed by Prof. Ayo Akinwole, the Chairman, UI Chapter of ASUU, in Ibadan on Thursday.
Prof. Ajewole, a lecturer in the Department of Social and Environmental Forestry Development Department was shot dead while returning home on Monday, and his car stolen.
The statement, in which the union also appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take a passionate interest and ensure the security system unmasks the professor’s murderers reads:
“The heart of every ASUU-UI member is bleeding so profusely as if pierced by swords.
“Our bones shook so tremendously as if our marrows were naked in the tundra region.
“We condemn in totality the gruesome murder of our comrade, Prof. Opeyemi Ajewole and charge the security operatives to track down and apprehend the perpetrators of this dastardly act, with a view to unravelling the motive behind the incident, as well as bringing the perpetrators to book.
“Prof. Ajewole’s gruesome murder again reminded us of how valueless human lives had become in our clime.
“The Nigerian populace is constantly assailed by terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, assassination, hunger, unemployment, and many more insidious exterminators of our individual and collective dreams.
“The situation of the Nigerian academics is even doubly precarious; they are prophets without any honour at home.
“It is, therefore, disheartening that academics who cultivate, preserve, and disseminate knowledge for the advancement and development of society will become victims of societal malady to such an extent as to be targeted for elimination.
“The union wishes to use this teary occasion of Prof. Ajewole’s sudden death to call on the Nigerian state to resolutely tackle the problem of insecurity in the country, apprehend the killers of Prof. Ajewole and punish them most appropriately.”
Loved ones, including family, friends and students, while mourning the late professor described his death as the fall of a might iroko.