A recent nefarious activity of cult members which created a tensed atmosphere at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos has resulted into the shutting down of the school’s academic activities by the students.
The students protested the attack carried out on an unidentified student by the members of a dreaded cult group on the campus.
This was according to the students an effort to express their discontent about the cultism activities which is beginning to rear its ugly head again on campus.
This resulted into the disruption of normal school activities on Thursday morning.
The students also disallowed policemen from accessing the campus to intervene in the disorder, hence students inside the campus were held hostage for several hours.
Even buses were prevented from entering the campus.
An eye witness, who does not want to be attributed, described the genesis of the crisis which was said to have been ignited when an unknown student was attacked with machetes by some cultists after a misunderstanding.
“The student had ignored the cult member when that one told him to do something for him. He was later beaten, clubbed and cut with matchetes.
“Somebody alerted the victim’s friends and they also came out and faced the cult members”, the eye witness stated.
However, part of the students grievances as that the school security guards have failed in carrying out their responsibilities to avoid the attacks of the cult members.
A student also recalled that similar incident had occurred recently in the school.
“Two weeks ago, they (the cultists) stormed the Art Block and wreaked havoc while our security men were merely watching. So the students decided to take over the security of the school”, he said.
The crises also led to the students barricading the major road which led to the campus.
However, the Dean of Students Affairs, Mr. Omobayo Raheem, made efforts to pacify the angry students when he assured that the injured student was undergoing treatments at the school’s medical centre. .
“Like many of you, I have not been able to sleep as a result of this development. I apologise to every one of us as a result of the injury one of us sustained. There is no doubt that injury to one is injury to all.
“I can assure you that the management has set up a high-powered panel to look into this and none of the culprits will go unpunished be they students or lecturers”, he said.