An alumnus of the Obafemi Awolowo University, identified as @Plumbline on Twitter, has shared his experience of the day five students of the university were killed by cultists in 1999.
He shared his experience on the anniversary of the killing which shook the university community and led to the renouncement of cultism.
According to him, he had just returned from Lagos when he witnessed the ugly incident.
Plumbline, a geologist tweeted, “July 9, 1999, I had just returned from Lagos, having gone home to treat Malaria. I was in Block 3, Room 138 Faj Hall.
“Early hours of July 10, Faro Idris, the then PRO of the then proscribed SUG frantically ran to the Faj PA System to warn students that we were under attack #OAU5
“Students were unfortunately still upset with the Union then because we had been sent home for over eight months.
“Faro’s move was heroic, considering he had a target on his back at that very moment. Midway into his announcement, a shot rang out. #OAU5.
“We turned off our lights. That would be the saving grace for Tolex D, the Director of Socials, who had run into the bathroom.
“Unfortunately, that’s what marked the end of Eviano Ekelemun, a Final Year Medical student, who was stepping out of same, he got shot in the thigh #OAU5.”
Revealing more details, Plumbline reflected that the killings caused many students to renounce cultism.
He said, “Rather than cause fear and bring back cultism to OAU, the horrid nature of the events caused many to renounce cultism.”
According to Plumbline, who is also a poet, the casualties include, Eviano Ekelemun, Yemi Ajiteru, Iwilade George aka AFRIKA, Babatunde Oke Sabo and Efe Godspower Ekede.
OAU Five is the name given to the five students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, who were killed during a series of shootings and murders which took place on the school campus on Saturday, July 10, 1999.
It resulted in the death of five students and left many more students of the school injured.
The attack was perpetrated by a squad of about 40 members of the Black Axe Confraternity branch at the university, in collaboration with some of their colleagues from other schools.
They invaded the Awolowo Hall of the university at around 4.30am, clad in black clothes, with their faces hidden by masks, and attacked students with guns and machetes.
In an interview with The PUNCH, the then President of the school’s Students’ Union Government, Lanre Adeleke, popularly known as Legacy, who narrowly escaped death as he was also a target, had shared his experience on the incident.
(Punch)
