Students of The Polytechnic, Ibadan on Tuesday staged a protest against the killing of a member of the school’s Students Forum, Ahmed Olalekan, nicknamed Maku, by suspected cultists.
The Students Forum is an anti-cultism group comprising of students and former students of the school. Maku was a graduate of the school who was involved in the fight against cultism through his activities as a member of the forum. He was said to have been killed on Monday night by cultists who stormed his apartment in Apete area of Ibadan and shot him at a close range.
The cultists were said to have also cut him several times in the neck with an axe to ensure he was truly dead before leaving the scene.
Public Relations Officer of the forum, Adeyemi Ridwan, who was one of the last persons that saw the victim before his death, said the cultists had been threatening to strike for more than two weeks, blaming the school authority for not acting on the information.
Ridwan said, “The school is aware of this. I left the school with Maku on Monday and when we got to Apete, I told him that we should go to a place but he said he wanted to go and rest at home so he alighted from the commercial motorcycle we took from school.
“Five minutes later, a lady called me and said that Maku had been killed by cultists who shot him in the neck in his apartment.”
Another member of the forum, Bakare Ademuyiwa, said that on August 6, 2018, he received a message from a member of the Aye Confraternity. He said he was told Maku had been disturbing them from carrying out their activities in the school.
“I said that the forum is an anti-cultism group that had existed for many years in the school. I also pleaded with them not to attack Maku.
“I was shocked on Monday night when I received a call while watching the Premier League match between Manchester United and Tottenham that Maku had been killed by two Aye Confraternity members who attacked him in his apartment at Apete.”
“Maku was shot in the neck and the killers stabbed his neck with an axe several times. He graduated from Urban and Regional Planning Department of the school. The Students Forum has within the group, students and former students of the school.”
