Live on George Iwilade (Afrika). It’s disdainfully sad that the people who are enjoying peace today don’t know the blood sacrifice that was used to pay for it.
July 10 is not one of those days to forget easily neither is it one we’ll like to remember but for the continuous reign of peace, we often need to be reminded the price that was paid for it.
Current OAU students who can walk around the school at anytime of the day/night without harassment from cultists don’t even know what price was paid. I sometime ago spoke with some students about the July 10th massacre but most of them are either ignorant about it, feigned ignorance or showed little or no concern.
I can’t remember a more touching story that has helped form peace in Nigerian institutions. This freedom isn’t enjoyed in most of the Nigerian institutions and there’s been no Messiah (Afrika) to stand up for the students.
The true definition of heroism is when one stands up to fight a good cause. George was a secretary general of the SUG and he indeed represented the people unlike what we have in various institutions today.
It is a fervent prayer that one day the perpetrators of this hideous crime will be brought to justice.
I read the history on wiki sometime ago and was touched.
An excerpt from Wikipedia.
The massacre
On the night of 9 July 1999 a number of student groups held
a party at Obafemi Awolowo University. The ‘Mirror Online’
reports: “members of Kegites Club on the campus, Man O’
war members, and various other student leaders— both
former and incumbent, gathered at the open ground
between Angola and Mozambique Halls.” Later in the night
many of the party-goers began occupying the cafeteria of
Awolowo Hall whilst others returned to their halls of
residence to sleep.At between 3:00 and 3:30 am (now 10 July 1999) a large
number of cultists (reported to be between 22 and 40) of
the confraternity arrived to carry out a
preplanned assault on the university with the intention of
carrying out the assassinations of several prominent
members of the student union. Allegations that these
assassinations were sponsored by the university’s vice
chancellor, Wale Omole, remain to this day but it is unclear
if this is the case. It is said “one of the cultists, Kazeem
Bello, aka Kato, confessed that Wale Omole had a hand in
their July 10 dastardly operation.”Upon arriving at the university the cultists “drove
through the main gate and proceeded to the car park next
to the Tennis Courts in the Sports Center. They
disembarked there and went on foot along a bush path to
Awolowo Hall, where they violently interrupted the gyration,
firing guns and also wielding axes and cutlasses.”Although the order of the events that followed vary from
account to account (in terms of who was killed in what
order) it is clear that following the assault 4 people were
left dead, another died from gunshot wounds later, one
more survived from a gunshot wound and “Twenty-five
others received minor injuries, which were sustained during
the stampede out of the Awolowo Hall cafeteria and later
on during the attack.”The Mirror Online reports: “The victims, which included the
then Students’ Union Secretary General, George Yemi
Iwilade, (fondly called Afrika); 400 level medical student,
Eviano Ekelemu; a graduating student, Yemi Ajiteru; 100-
Level Philosophy student, Babatunde Oke, and Ekpede
Godfrey were gunned down by the “marauding beasts” in
Blocks 5 and 8, Awolowo Hall.”Prof. Roger Makanjuola writes:
“Tunde Oke was still alive but died on the operating
table. Four others, George Iwilade, Yemi Ajiteru, Efe Ekede
and Eviano Ekelemu, were brought in dead. Eviano Ekelemu
bled to death from gunshot wounds to the groin and thigh.
The other three died from gunshot wounds to the head.” [2]
During the attack several accounts state the
members were heard to be “shouting, “Legacy, come out!””
referring to the suspended Students’ Union President, Lanre
Adeleke.Additional targets of the attacks are described
also. Prof. Roger Makanjuola’s account states the same
and he also writes: “During the course of the incident, the
attackers also shouted the names of “Afrika”, George
Iwilade, and “Dexter”, the Chief of the Kegites, demanding
that they come out.”Of the targets of the massacre Lanre Adeleke (Legacy)
managed to escape by jumping from a balcony after hearing
the gunfire. “Dexter”, the Chief of the Kegites, also escaped
unharmed. George Iwilade (Afrika), the Secretary-General of
the Students’ Union and a Law student was not so lucky.
Upon entering his room the “shot him
immediately in the head. Then they smashed his head with
their axe to make sure he was dead”.It is reported George Iwilade (Afrika) was the only
successfully assassinated victim. “Afrika, who was said to
have carried out the arrest (relating to the incident on
Saturday, 7 March 1999), was mercilessly butchered while
the other four were just unfortunate victims”Prof. Roger Makanjuola gives the order of events as been:
“They first entered Room 184, where they shot and killed
Efe Ekede, a Part II Psychology student. In Room 230, they
shot Charles Ita, a Part II Law student. A group of the
attackers then shot Yemi Ajiteru, a Part II Religious Studies
student, through the head in the corridor outside the
Kegites’ headquarters. In Room 273, they found George
Iwilade (Afrika), the Secretary-General of the Students’
Union and a Law student, and shot him through the head,
along with another occupant, Tunde Oke, a Part 1 student
of Philosophy, who was shot in the abdomen.When the attackers got to Room 271, the room allocated to
the suspended Students’ Union President, Lanre Adeleke
(Legacy), they found that he had escaped. Legacy was in
his room when he heard the first gun shots….. The band of
thugs proceeded to Fajuyi Hall on foot, where they shot and
killed one more student. That individual, Eviano Ekelemo, a
medical student, was certainly not a student activist, but
they shot him anyway.”. However, the order in which the
victims were killed varies in various testimonies by a
number of witnesses.Prof. Roger Makanjuola’s account of the cultist’s
escape is: “The murderers left Fajuyi Hall on foot and went
through the bush path behind the Hall back to their vehicles.
They drove to the Students’ Union building, which they
ransacked. They returned to their vehicles and drove out of
the University through the main gate. The security staff,
having heard gunfire, fled for their lives. Thus the exit of the
marauding thugs was unchallenged.”Aftermath
The day after the attack it is reported “President Adeleke
presided over an assembly in the enormous amphitheater
of Oduduwa Hall; he demanded the immediate resignation
of Wale Omole, the loathed vice chancellor who impeded
student efforts to eliminate cults (Omole, for example,
failed to expel the previously apprehended eight cultists).
An award of 10,000 nairas ($100 U.S.)
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Very gory. I can just picture in my mind. Cultism has never helped anybody. Only blood shed