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Edo Governor, Monday Okpebholo, has ordered the release of the students of Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, who were remanded at Ubiaja prison on the order of a State High Court, Benin.
The students are alleged to have been a part of the Ekpoma anti-kidnapping protest that turned violent, in Esan West Local Government Area of the state.
According to Governor Okpebholo, the protest was sponsored by a Nigerian residing in Russia.
The order for the release of the students was disclosed by the Commissioner for Education, Paddy Iyamu, who said he had been directed by the governor to liaise with the prison authority.
Iyamu stated that the protest, which later became violent, was started by some people who called themselves the Comrade Association.
“I wonder how a protest will occur without the president of the Students Union Government of that particular school.
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“The president was not in the school, the school is not in session, so we have a group called Comrades Association, as it were, that co-opt students to carry out dastardly acts.
“When you are going for a peaceful protest, you carry your placard, you send the message across to the government, you comport yourself properly, you even write to the law enforcement agents intimating them of your plan, and you carry out any operation within the confines of the law. But that didn’t happen. There was no letter written to the security agencies.
“It is this group and the people who make up this group are ex-students of the university that have graduated, some didn’t graduate, and they just hang around the school community looking for an opportunity to latch onto.
“We had cases where they even went to the house of the traditional ruler, went into the kitchen of the wife of the traditional ruler, took Indomie, took the oven away.
“We are training our students to be well, to be developed both in learning and in character, and that character does not depict the average student in the state university.
“But this morning His Excellency, a man that we all love who has done a lot for the students, and he is still doing more for the students, has said that all those identified as a bonafide students of the AAU, we should liaise with the security agencies and by the grace of God they will walk home freely,” he said.
