Oyo Police chief denies shooting female workers of IAR&T

Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mr Abiodun Odude, says his men were not responsible for shooting of two female members of staff of the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Ibadan.

Odude made the clarification in a telephone interview with newsmen in Ibadan.

The police chief spoke on the reports that policemen drafted to quell students’ protest at the Federal College of Agriculture (FCA), Apata, Ibadan, shot two workers of the institute.


In his comments, Prof. James Adediran, the Executive Director of IAR&T, insisted that two members of staff of the institute were shot by the policemen drafted to quell the students protest at the college.

“In the process of shooting, two personnel of IAR&T who have nothing to do neither with the students nor the college were shot with live bullets,’’ he said.

Newsmen report that students of the College of Agriculture had on Monday morning staged a protest over the closure of their school.

Newsmen report that the protesting students blocked the gates to the IAR&T preventing vehicles and people from gaining access into the institute which shares the same premises with college.

This, however, caused a gridlock on Ibadan-Abeokuta Road at Apata.
“A woman was shot in the abdomen while a young lady, an intern with us, was shot in the thigh.
“Two of them are lying critically ill at the Emergency Department of UCH, Ibadan,’’ Adediran said.
Also, Odude said that the students blocked the Ibadan-Abeokuta Road during the protest, attacked vehicles and threw stones at the police.
He said that four policemen were wounded as a result of the stones thrown at them by the students.
“ Police fired teargas to push the students to the extreme and were able to arrest some of the students that threw the stones.
“ There was no gun shot,’’ Odude insisted.
NAN