UNIBEN VC’s alleged poisoning: Market women attack suspects

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM, BENIN CITY Monday, September 1, 2014, hundreds of market women stormed the palace of the Oba of Benin, raining curses on those after the life of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin (UNIBEN),Prof.Osayuki Oshodin. Oshodin, the first Benin man to head UNIBEN, was allegedly poisoned and spent over two months in hospital in London before his return last month. The women also protested to Edo State Government House, demanding that another Benin man succeeds Oshodin at the expiration of his tenure in November. The women, led by Madam Blacky Ugiagbe, similarly, condemned what they described as frivolous petitions against the Vice Chancellor by some persons they described as “enemies of progress”. According to them, they intend to fish out those who allegedly poisoned Oshodin by all means, just as they hinted that the suspects would be handed over to the gods of Benin land. The women commenced the protest at about 10am, defying the early morning rain, and singing war songs. “We are mothers in this town and all we want is the good of our children. We are not happy with some professors who, because of their selfish interests, are causing crisis in UNIBEN through petitions which are not true,” the protesters leader, Ugiagbe, said. “Before now, the professors were sharing the money meant for employment in this school but Oshodin came in and employed indigenes from every tribe. Oshodin developed infrastructures and there has been peace in the university for the over four years he has spent. But unfortunately some professors and a former VC are not happy with the development in the university because the money they used to share is now being used to pay people who were employed by Oshodin. And we are aware that some people are already struggling that the next VC should go elsewhere. Our demand is that any Benin man who is qualified must be allowed to be the next VC. This is our land, we were marginalized for over 40 years before a Benin man became VC of UNIBEN. We are asking for equity and justice and anybody who tries to intimidate Binis will not stay in our land”. Also, the Benin National Congress (BNC), a Benin socio-cultural organization, appealed to the Oba of Benin to wade into the alleged campaign of calumny against Oshodin. In a letter addressed to the Oba, signed by its Director of Publicity, David Ekomwenrenren, it said, “Less than two years after this noble gesture, we learnt that some professors were waging a centrifugal campaign against the person of the VC; and we raised the alarm vide an open letter to Your Majesty to nip in the bud the problem which was eminently resolved by Your Majesty. After Your Majesty’s royal intervention, some of the professors were on the fence on matters connected to the well-being of the university in spite of our effort to forge the cause of unity amongst them. There is no gainsaying the fact that Prof. Oshodin’s landmark achievements in the university of Benin are second to none in the university’s history. The primary objective of our intervention is to solicit your fatherly support for the overall development of the University vis-a-vis the deepening of oneness amongst Benin academics, so that Prof. Oshodin does not become the last Benin VC in the next ten years as anti-Benin elements have decreed. A disunited people cannot prosecute any meaningful struggle to its logical conclusion; hence we are appealing that our brothers and sisters are made united more than ever to launch and succeed in the task ahead. We pray that Your Majesty decree that any Benin that will gang up against Prof. Oshodin or Binis in position of authority forthwith becomes an enemy of the land.” Meanwhile, some persons alleged that the protest by the women was masterminded by the authorities of the university, an allegation the authorities described as mischief and an attempt to distort the facts. The university recalled that part of the reasons adduced by the women for embarking on the protest was to request that another Benin son succeeds Oshodin and not that they sought for the elongation of the tenure of the VC. “We watch some panellists on TV insinuating that the VC, who has performed creditably well, is seeking for elongation through the women,” the university said in a statement. “That is not only false but wicked because everybody including the Vice Chancellor knows that the tenure of VCs now is five years and there is nothing like elongation. Besides, the women who protested are not members of the university community and it will wrong to insinuate that the protest was masterminded by the VC. As stakeholders, they have a right to demand and protest any issue and that has nothing to do with the university. Several people have protested in the state on several occasions and we wonder how the protest by market women is being traced to the VC who just returned from a medical trip. We want to remind those mischief makers that the glorious tenure of Prof.Oshodin will end November 2014 and there are no plans for any extension. Rather than embark on mischief, we urge these prophets of doom and their sponsors to repent before they will be consumed by the fire of the Holy Ghost.” - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/uniben-vcs-alleged-poisoning-market-women-attack-suspects/#sthash.9vXdYMIe.dpuf