The National Association of Nigerian Students (Zone D) has called for justice for a student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Heritage Ajibola who died after falling into a soakaway in BVER, one of the private hostels in the students’ village.
The deceased, a student of the department of Linguistics and African Languages, was said to be with her friends spreading clothes on a line when she mistakenly fell into a hole leading into the soakaway and got stuck in it.
It was later discovered that termites had eaten the wood which was used to cover the soakaway.
Reacting, Adegboye Emmanuel Olatunji, Coordinator of NANS (Zone D), in a statement, offered his condolences to the family of the deceased.
Olatunji berated the school management for failing to check structural standard of hostels before allocating them to students.
The statement read, “It is actually a sad reality to receive the loss of Heritage Ajibola who happens to be a 200L student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, from the Linguistics and African Languages department who accidentally fell into the soakaway during the mid-period of 9th February 2022 at Bver Hostel, Maintenance Ede Road, due to negligence and poor hostel management by the manager (Mr. Emmanuel) and the owner.
“The blood of Miss Heritage Ajibola is on the management of the Hostel and we hold them accountable for the events.
“The situation should be seen as an urge to muster the hostel management of the school to improve in their affairs with managing the school hostel as the health of the students should be a priority to the school management. Bver hostel, a private hostel erected on the university’s property.
“The NANS Southwest believes that the university management under the leadership of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede should have done a good job checking the structural standard of the hostels before accommodating the Nigerian students. A welfare committee on off campus hostel should have been effected by the management.
“We are using this medium to sympathise with the family of the late student and also urge the school to see to avoiding such incident later in future. We demand justice for our sister and friend whom the management of the Hostel has sent on an untimely errand.”
