Scores injured as Oye-Ekiti Varsity students clash with okadamen over fares

There was tension at the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, FUOYE, yesterday, as about 20 people were injured when students of the university and commercial motorcyclists, okadamen, engaged in a free-for-all over transportation fare.
Sources in the community told newsmen that trouble started when a student and a commercial motorcyclist had an altercation.

A source said: “The commercial biker slapped the student, leading to a fight between them, which other students latched unto. 

“It was escalated by the anger the students had bottled up for a while over what they see as exploitation by commercial motorcyclists and sundry business operators in the community.” The clash was said to have been exacerbated when the commercial motorcyclists were said to have mobilised against the students, who were also not ready to be cowed. The injured students were treated at the university’s health centre and were discharged, while sources claimed that “nobody was seriously injured as to be admitted.”

 Speaking on the incident, the institution’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Godfrey Bagji, explained that it was “a clash between some of our students and commercial motorcyclists; it was an incident that happened instantaneously outside the campus.” On the seriousness of the injuries sustained by the affected students, Bagji said: “By the time I got to the health centre, the injured students had been treated and had left.” He said it was not “really students versus indigenes matter, but students and commercial motorcyclists and we must know that many of the cyclists are not even indigenes of town.