Some Nigerians have written off the committee set up by Akwa Ibom State government to investigate the case of a final-year student expelled from Akwa Ibom state university after being accused of making “derogatory remark” against Governor Emmanuel Udom on Facebook.
Some online platforms had reported that Iniobong Ekpo, who was studying Agricultural Engineering at the institution, had written a Facebook article in 2019 with the pseudonym ‘Afrosix Jaara,’ accusing the Governor of reneging on a promise he allegedly made in 2017 to give financial reward to the then graduating students of the university.
“It’s 2 years and 166 days since he promised, yet none of the graduands received a naira even the first class graduands were unattended to when they went to his office,” Mr Ekpo wrote in the Facebook post, adding that Mr Emmanuel may have “scammed” the students.
In a release, John Udoh, the university’s registrar first suspended and then expelled the student over the article which the university’s institution said was a “breach” of the matriculation oath and a violation of the university rules and regulations enshrined in the Student Information Handbook.
In reaction, the expelled student accused the university authorities of not giving him a fair hearing and never inviting him to defend himself.
In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Ekerete Udoh, Governor Udom said he was not aware of the administrative action undertaken by the university.
Udom also stated that he has directed the constitution of a Panel comprising five members, to review the case and submit its report immediately.
The Panel is to be headed by the Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Idongesit Etiebet.
The statement read “We have read various reports mainly on the social media space concerning the administrative sanction said to have been taken by the Management of the Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU) against one of its students, Iniobong Ekpo, leading to his expulsion from the University.
“We have equally followed the media feeding frenzy by the usual motely crowd of political jobbers and inveterate rabble rousers who have maliciously tried to link the action taken by the university authority to the Visitor of the University, His Excellency, Governor Udom Emmanuel.
“We wish to state here emphatically that Governor Emmanuel, a known apostle of freedom of expression, was and is still not aware of this purely administrative action reportedly undertaken by the university.
“He has accordingly, directed the constitution of a Panel comprising five members, to review the case and submit its report immediately. The Panel is to be headed by the Honourable Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Idongesit Etiebet.”
However, some Nigerians in social media vented anger over the expulsion.
An anonymous wrote ‘’Lmao. Who is akwaibom state government? How did the student get expelled in the first place. You people keep deceiving yourselves. Because the story is now frontline news, they want to pretend like they didn’t know.’’
Great described the government thus ‘’Wicked Government, what use of a committee, everyone has freedom of speech in democracy, if you don’t tolerate criticism how will you know you are doing right and how will you grow.’’
An anonymous queried ‘’Why not tell them to re-absorb the student?. Why all this enquiry? . He kii person? ndi ara.’’
Another said ‘’This is what happens when a Governor doesn’t even know the meaning of “Democracy”. All these bad leaders that play god, you days are numbered and you all will surely feel the wrath of the most high.’’
‘’A democratic society/country with no freedom of speech! There is no insult here! The questions that need asking are as follows 1) Did the governor make the promise to reward the best graduating students? 2) Did he make good on such promise? There’s no grey area here. Both questions are simple yes or no answers!
‘’The university should be ashamed of themselves! If this student stands to be corrected, no problem. But expulsion? For what na? Too many people and institutions in Naija are simply power drunk! Constructive criticism just doesn’t exist with us. Everything na insult. Useless country with too many useless pple at d top!’’ anonymous lampooned the government.
‘’You why the western countries refer to Africa with the term “black”? Not because of the colour of our skin but the color of our hearts. This is just to suppress the poor boy and trample on his rights of freedom of speech as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution. Reason Africa will never develop, we will remain black it’s not a curse, it’s the path we’ve chosen for ourselves collectively,’’ anonymous penned.
Preciouis Ajuru expressed shock thus ‘’What’s with Nigeria and setting up panels? Why can’t the commissioner herself/himself investigate? What does it take to just call the school and find out what happened and why they went that route? Even when we want to do the right thing, we go about it the wrong way. This will be another waste of resources, even if just logistics. I tire abeg
‘’Why enquiry? Act like the formal Catholic pope n set the guy free,’’ Paulinus Chima commented.
