Miscreants parading as students brutalize vigilante members in Ogbomoso, a week after a student is allegedly killed

Miscreants parading as students brutalize vigilante members in Ogbomoso, a week after a student is allegedly killed

Khalid ABRAHAM

It was a narrow escape for some members of an ad-hoc joint security group put in place by the Ogbomoso Parapo Thursday at the Owode axis of Ogbomoso, Oyo state as they were brutally attacked by some group of “students.”

According to information reaching ogbomosoinsightonline.com the vigilante members stormed one of the hideouts of the miscreants who are believed to be either former or dismissed students but who still roam the areas.

“But the miscreants swiftly attacked the vigilante members with dangerous weapons – cutlasses, axes, daggers and charms. They overpowered the security agents severely wounding one of them with machete cuts,” an eyewitness who did not give his name told Ogbomoso Insight. “The attack was so brutal that the security agents had to run for their lives.”

However, it was reported that some of the miscreants were apprehended and had been handed over to the police.

When contacted the teachers of schools in the vicinity described the attackers as “miscreants who parade as students. They are not our students. Our students are in the school, you can’t tag those ones as bonafide students.”

When told some of them wear schools’ uniforms a teacher in one of the schools who preferred anonymity argued, “What is the big deal in wearing a school uniform. They might be former students and we have discovered some of them are in possession of several uniforms though they aren’t registered students of the schools.”

The brutalized vigilante was later rescued and taken to a hospital.

Meanwhile, some areas have become hotbeds of “students” unrests. Some of these are Kuye, Sabo, Owode and Eku Dam/Isale Omosin axes.

A resident of Isale Omosin, who identified himself simply as Coach Sunday lamented noting the situation had become unbearable. “On a regular basis these students disrupt the peace of our area, throwing stones at one another using dangerous weapons. Few days ago they cut off the arm of a student whom we are hearing is dead now. So today they launched retaliatory attacks, they fired bangers which we thought initially was sound of gunshots and everybody had to run inside. We are fed up, we have tried all means to curb the menace but it has persisted. It is beyond teachers, government should intervene, maybe they should deploy soldiers.”