Yaba Tech Authorities Threatens Students Leader over exposure of cult gangs

Members of the National Association
of Nigerian Students (NANS) who
pressed for an investigation into the
activities of cult groups at Yaba
College of Technology have accused
the institution’s authorities of witch-
hunting them.
Some NANS leaders told
Saharareporters that the
management of Yaba College of
Technology was planning a vindictive
move against Fatima Adeyinka Salau,
the public relations officer of the
Lagos State chapter of NANS’ Joint
Campus Committee (JCC). Ms. Salau
had recently granted an interview to
SaharaTV in which she detailed her
group’s efforts to rid the campus of
cultism.
In the interview (available
here http://saharareporters.tv/yaba-
college-of-technology-harbours-
finances-cult-gangs-says-student/),
Ms. Salau alleged that members of
cult gangs brazenly descend on
innocent students on the campus
and brag about having the backing
of the school’s management. She
disclosed that violent acts by various
cult gangs had soared on the
campus.
The student leader suggested that
cult gangs who largely control the
institution, dictating what students
wear, how students move, and other
sundry relationships on campus.
She also accused the college
authorities of impeding efforts by
students to check cultism on the
campus, adding that the school had
set up a diversionary committee to
interrogate squatters in the hostels
instead of investigating cult
members.
Sources at Yaba Tech told
Saharareporters that the college’s
management was livid about the
interview and was moving to gag Ms.
Salau. Meanwhile, added our
sources, cult gangs continue their
assaults on students.
SaharaReporters learned that a
suspected cult member recently
attacked an ND2 student of the
Banking and Finance department.
The victim, identified simply as
Nonso, reportedly sustained severe
injuries. Eyewitnesses told
Saharareporters that there was no
prior fracas or relationship between
the culprit and the student he
attacked.
Following the unwarranted attack,
irate students seized the campus in
a one-day protest, demanding an
end to cult activities on the campus.
Instead, an executive member of the
Student Union Government at the
college told our correspondent that
the cult gangs had become more
emboldened in their violent acts.
“They rape, they rob and they attack
innocent students,” the SUG
member said. He also stated that
the security networks of the Cadet
and Man O’ War on the campus had
weakened against the notorious cult
members.
Another member of the SUG
suggested that alleged cult members
have now infiltrated the security
outfits.
“Someof them in the Man O’ War
are even cult members,” another
SUG executive alleged.
Ms. Salau had told SaharaTV that
the security outfits were often
discouraged because of their
awareness that the cult gangs enjoy
the hardly veiled backing of college
authorities. She said the Cadet and
Man O’ War were doing their best,
but disclosed that cult members
arrested by them are quickly
released by the police.
“They also boast that management is
behind them and [that management]
pays them,” Ms. Salau told our
interviewer. She alleged that the
school’s rector, Mrs. Kudirat Ladipo,
was “trying to be a mother” to all
students rather than flushing out
the cult members.
During the student body’s one-day
protest, they had demanded that
cult members, who are allegedly
known to the management, be
identified and rusticated. The
students also insisted that the
management should take full
responsibility for the medical
treatment of the student viciously
attacked by an alleged cult member.
The students had also demanded
that none of the demonstrators who
protested to draw attention to issues
of student safety may be victimized.
The college authorities had pledged
to meet the demands.
A few weeks later, the college
released a controversial list of so-
called cult members. However,
students rejected the list, calling it
manipulative, and adding that it was
populated with names of innocent
students while real cult members
were left out.
The management also set up a panel
to investigate the listed students.
However, the college soon told
students that the focus was no
longer on cult members but about
students who squat in hostels or buy
spaces from those who were
originally allotted them.
This about-face led students to
accuse the management of devising
a plan to victimize Ms. Salau for
publicizing the cult crisis at Yaba
College of Technology.
A lecturer at the college told
SaharaReporters that the rector, Mrs.
Ladipo, was considering ordering
that Ms. Salau’s academic records be
withheld as a punishment for her
SaharaTV appearance.
“Mrs. Kudirat Ladipo and others in
authority are angry that Fatima
exposed what they are trying to
manage,” said the lecturer.
However, Omobayo Raheem, the
college’s Dean of Student affairs,
this morning denied that the rector
or anybody at the college was after
Ms. Salau for her SaharaTV interview.
“How can we step down her result
when we have not even investigated
her? It is not true. The management
has not even summoned her yet.
How then could we have that
conclusion?” the dean stated.
Several students confirmed that
statements by Ms. Salau in the
interview were correct.
“To deny what she said is to deny
that there are cult members on
campus. It is the same as denying
the existence of the incidence for
which we protested a few weeks
ago,” a student of the Arts faculty
told our correspondent.
“Well, it’s just that nobody wants his
face to be marked by either the cult
guys or the management, but
everyone knows that all she said is
true,” another student said.
But curiously, a student from the
accounting department told our
correspondent that the rector, Mrs.
Ladipo, was maintaining the cult
guys for use in upcoming elections.
He suggested the management
would do anything to keep the cult
gangs.
“The rector doesn’t want to lose
those boys. Her husband is a
politician and she even became a
rector by his influence. Her husband
needs those boys for 2015, and that
is why his wife is helping keep thugs
on the campus for the sake of 2015,”
added the student.
Disappointed by the college
management’s “manipulative panel,”
students wrote to the authorities
demanding the panel’s dissolution.
The students are insisting on a new
panel composed of students,
members of cadets and the Man O’
War as well as representatives of the
school administration.
Our correspondent was unable to
reach the rector as her mobile line
was switched off. The new President
of Students Union Government (SUG)
in the institution, Mr. Salvador ,
could also not be reached for his
comment.