President of the University of Ibadan Students’ Union (UISU), Mr Aderemi Ojo, has said the university, which was shut recently, will not begin examinations until the identity cards the students paid for are given them.

He said: “The power we rely on is the power of democracy. I can assure you that exams will not be written if students don’t get ID cards. There are several students on campus who have been assaulted and embarrassed on the issue of ID cards. 

"Secondly, there are students who are supposed to receive scholarships who couldn’t scan their ID cards and send, even outside Nigeria.”

Ojo said many students had missed foreign grants because they could not present ID cards to prove their studentship.

On the school’s closure and suspension of union activities, the union president said the vice chancellor, Prof Idowu Olayinka, did not tolerate any form of dissent from students.

He cited the alleged victimisation of student leaders by UI authorities and the expulsion of a student over a Facebook post, to back his claims.

Ojo said: “We haven’t committed any crime. We haven’t done anything, but we are targets. These are academic individuals who blasted former President Goodluck Jonathan during and before the 2015 elections. But then, a student wrote an article on students’ union page on Facebook and the boy was expelled.”

The Nation