September 9th, 2024
The Kwara state Polytechnic Students’ Union has on Monday declared to march to the street if the Nigerian Police Force fail to bring the individual responsible for the death of Abdulqoyum Bamidele to justice.
The SUG President described the incident as ‘barbaric premeditated murder’ while facing the media on Monday in a press conference at Student Union Building, Kwara State Polytechnic.
He expressed that men of Police are insensitive, lack empathyand unprofessional for continuing to harass students at the same spot Abdulqoyum was murdered barely 48 after the horrible incident.
“More worrisome is the fact that our composure which is as a result of our sensitivity to the volatility of our society, owing to tension created by economic hardship, is now taken for granted.
More than 72 hours after we led a peaceful procession to the Kwara State Police Headquarters, which led to an extensive dialogue with top police hierarchy, in the presence of state government representatives, which gave us an assurance that all stakeholders will work together towards ensuring that justice is served on time and to forestall future occurrences, the police are yet to make any revelation about the officer responsible for the murder of our beloved colleague.” He said.
The President, on behalf of all Kwara state Polytechnic Students’ read the demands:
OUR DEMANDS:
1.PUBLIC UNVEILING OF THE MURDEROUS POLICE OFFICERS: The trust of the entire Kwara State Polytechnic Students in the Police to do a diligent and thorough investigation can only be regained by the Kwara Police Command, if the murderous vampires can be unveiled via a well publicised Police parade.
This act of parading suspects as we all know is a normal ritual of the Nigerian Police Force, so we demand the unveiling of the culprit. Kwarans and indeed the general public deserves to know them.
The disclosure of the identity of the officer responsible for this heinous crime and accountability from the police force is expected to be implemented without any delay in order to calm the nerves of the Students and reassure the Student community of the altruistic indulgence of the Police hierarchy to serve justice.
2. OPEN INVESTIGATION: The Investigation must be conducted without any form of secrecy or ambiguity whatsoever. We’re sure that there are several houses in the vicinity of the murder with Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV), thus the investigation is streamlined and straightforward.
Therefore, any attempt to employ delay tactics with the aim of sweeping the case under the carpet will be frontally resisted and all those remotely or directly involved in such satanic and sinister plan will have the Kwara State Polytechnic family to contend with.
3. IMMEDIATE HALT OF POLICE HARASSMENT AND EXTORTING UNDER THE GUISE OF STOP AND SEARCH: We demand an immediate and permanent halt to stop-and-search operations along Post Office / Polytechnic routes, which have become notorious for police brutality and extortion. Police officers should be officially restrained from checking of cell phones on highways.
4. PAYMENT OF RESTITUTION TO THE FAMILY: Without prejudice to the outcome of the investigation, we demand the Kwara State Police Command, the employers of the murderous officers, must accept the liability for cutting-short the lofty dreams of our colleague and roll out a comprehensive support and assistance to the family of the deceased.
5. SETTING UP OF POLICE /STUDENTS RELATIONSHIP COMMITTEE: We also wish to call for the immediate set up of a committee comprising of President of Various students bodies across the institutions in the state, Directors or Deans of Students Services of tertiary institutions and representatives of the police to address issues relating to students and police.
This must include among others, monetary compensation, Trauma Counseling, Institution of a Scholarship scheme for the siblings of the deceased.
All these are meagre compared to what our colleague could have achieved in changing the fortune if his low income family had his life not been bruttaly cutshort by the agents of sorrow in Police Uniform.
DEAR KWARA POLITES
The era of pleading and shying away from arrest is long gone. Henceforth, any student that is unjustly and illegally accosted on the road, should remain civil and never resist arrest, rather such a student should gently request to be taken to the nearest Police Station, after which such a victim should place a call or text the Union Executives.
He, however, frowned at Police who request for student’s phones on the road and cautioned that no police should ask students of their phones.
“Under no circumstances must any student be coersed into giving Police officers standing on the road access to their Phone, which is our inalienable privacy.
I assure you, that we will not rest until our demands are met. We will not be silenced. We will not be intimidated. We will rise, and our voices will not only be heard, rather it must be made to count.”
“To the police, we say: enough is enough, stop killing us. And to our fellow students, we say: let us stand together in this fight for justice.
We urge the Kwara State Governor, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq to take on the side of the youths and students of this state. Our future is at risk, if nothing is done to address the ceaseless and senseless killing of the future leaders by the very people sworn to protect us.”
“We also want to state categorically that the SUG, the only recognized students body by the law of the institution will not involve itself in any violence protest in the name of demanding for justice. We are law abiding citizens of the country and we promised to demand for justice within the ambiance of the law.”
“Therefore, we give a 48hours ultimatum to the Nigeria police force to answer to our demands. Else, we might be left with no choice than heed to the pressure of majority of our members/students, whom have called for a peaceful, unceasing and unrelenting protest to fight for justice.
INJURY TO ONE, IS INJURY TO ALL.”