As Professor Ajewole Opeyemi Isaac of the Department of Social and Environmental Forestry Development of the University of Ibadan begins Journey to great beyond this week, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) today, 3rd of July, 2023 called on the new Acting Inspector General of Police Olukayode Egbetokun to deploy his tactical team to assist the Oyo State Police Command in unmasking the killers of the Professor.
Professor Ajewole was gruesomely gunned down by yet-to-be-identified assailants on the evening of Monday, 5 June 2023, in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Barely a month later, the Academic Union said it is not happy that the killers of their comrade and the motives are yet to be unearthed by the Nigerian Police Force .
In a release signed by the Chairman of UI Chapter of ASUU, Professor Ayo Akinwole, the Union said the Acting Inspector General of Police should take a passionate interest in the case, deploy the necessary human and technical expertise to unravel the mystery surrounding the killing, so that the perpetrators will be made to face the wrath of the law.
Akinwole who said the Oyo state Command has been trying its best, however, noted that the Police Inspector-general needs to be concerned and exclusive privileged resources of his office to assist in cracking the criminals behind the dastard killing of the Professor of Forest Economics and Urban Forestry.
According to the ASUU leader, “The Union awaits the arrest, parade and prosecution of the killers of Professor Opeyemi Ajewole. His family needs to experience that justice is served on those behind his gruesome killing. And by so doing, the entire people of Nigeria will have more trust in our policing system. As we bury Professor Ajewole this week without, yet the arrest of his killers, we are reminded of how insecure Nigerians are.
“The police and the intelligence community need to rise up and bring the perpetrators to book. The killings of hapless Nigerians must stop. The lives of Nigerians must matter and must be accounted for by those saddled with those responsibilities.”
While welcoming the newly posted Commissioner of Police, Adebola Hamzat to Oyo State, the Union charged the new police boss to re-energise the quest to track, arrest and prosecute the killers of Professor Ajewole.
Professor Akinwole said that though the university community grieves over the death, it will still celebrate the gallantry and contributions the late Professor Ajewole made to the Academic community and the Union with a special Congress of the Union in his honour.
The burial programmes of late Professor Ajewole begin on Sunday, 2, July 2023 with a candlelight procession to the Trenchard Hall of the Premier University, a Christian wake on Monday, July 3rd and lying-in-state in the university on Tuesday, 4th July ,2023.
