The Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has demanded that the Commissioner of Police in the state fish out the policemen responsible for the killing of two students of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti during a protest last Tuesday.
Fayemi made the demand in a state-wide broadcast on Sunday.
The governor said he had directed the CP to “urgently commence an investigation into the circumstances that led to the unfortunate shooting incident with a view to identifying possible culprits within and outside the Force.”
What started as a peaceful protest by FUOYE students turned violent and ended in tragedy.
Fayemi said though he could not comment much on the incident in view of ongoing investigations, he had no constraints expressing his sad feeling.
He said, “The right of citizens to protest on any issue relating to governmental actions or inaction is a fundamental component of our good governance agenda. We could not, therefore, under any circumstances have directed that deadly force be used on any of our citizens freely expressing their right to protest.”
The governor said he had told the police authorities to in the future “explore the use of non-lethal rubber bullets in managing public protests and the Nigerian Governors Forum will take this up at the highest levels in government.”
Also, the Transition Monitoring Group on Sunday demanded the prosecution of police officers responsible for the killing.
The organisation asked the Federal Government to set up a panel of enquiry that would investigate what led to the arbitrary killing and subsequent closure of the institution.
“We call on the Federal Government and the Ekiti Sate Government to immediately conduct an audit to address all the infrastructural lapses that were the root causes of the protest. We believe that a learning environment that lacks electricity and other infrastructures cannot deliver any meaningful educational system,” TMG stated.
The chairperson of TMG and West Africa Network for Peace, Nigeria, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, made the demands in a statement after meeting with leadership of FUOYE Students Union and National Association of Nigerian Students in Ibadan.
The statement reads, “TMG condemns the unruly conduct of the police officers that are meant to keep peace in the community, who apparently triggered the chaos which resulted in the preventable deaths of two innocent students, Okonufa Joseph, a 300 Level Student of Biology Education; and Dada Kehinde, a 100 level Student of Crop Science and Horticulture.
“We therefore demand the immediate prosecution of the police officers and other members of the Police Counter- Terrorism Unit involved in this unfortunate incident.