THE Ajayi Crowther University management is aware of an editorial published in your newspaper on June 5th, 2024, which contained many incorrect and unverified statements about the University, compelling the need to respond, to provide actual facts to set the records straight, even as the University is committed to transparency and accuracy in all matters, particularly those as serious as the issue addressed in the said editorial. To start with, the editorial asserts that the student’s death came a few weeks after a female student was raped by two Sheriffs attached to the university campus. The University will like to place it on good record that no Sheriff on the campus was involved in such act. One would have expected that a widely read newspaper should have clad itself with facts about the issue being referred to before going to press with wrong information in its editorial.
For clarity of purpose, ACU management has no intention of covering up any unholy act as it is committed to transparency, precision and honesty in its dealing with the public. It is on that premise that ACU management will like to correct the wrong impression created in the editorial by stating that those who perpetrated the sexual crime have been handed over to the police for investigation and trial and they were/are no Sheriffs attached to the University. Indeed, the Vice-Chancellor was present when the perpetrators were apprehended on the night of the incident and he personally drove them to the police station in his official car in company with Deputy Sheriffs on the campus.
While the university management will not condone or window-dress all acts of indiscipline like oppression, bullying, cultism and examination malpractices in the institution, it is equally hurting and hurtful that the editorial suggests that the institution created an environment that permitted brutality when indeed the serenity of ACU campus and the quality of its academic output have been applauded on several platforms.
It is therefore more of stretching the facts for your newspaper to jump to conclusion concerning the nature of ambience that exists at ACU, as if the editorial’s main objective is to attack and destroy every fabric of achievements and contributions that the institution had made and still making since its inception, and this without unnecessarily going back to what the Vice-Chancellor has severally said without ambiguity pertaining to perceived clumsiness on the arrest and handing over of all those involved, directly or indirectly, in the student’s death. Ajayi Crowther University recognizes and appreciates the fact that a newspaper’s editorial evaluates which issues are important for its reading public to know the newspaper’s opinion on issues at hand. We also believe that such opinion of a respected pioneer newspaper in Nigeria, with the capacity to lead or mislead the people, should be subjected to editorial scrutiny and fact-checking, in tune with best global practices before publication.
It is our opinion that the editorial makes an effort to succinctly and stylishly fly an allegation that the University ‘permitted’ the beating of the student for a long time, concluding, by asking, ‘if there are other stories in the University that are yet to come to light’. The University management views this as judgmental, unfair, and damaging. The timeline of events after the discovery of Akro’s body on the corridor of one of the halls of residence demonstrates that the University’s emergency response team, led by the Vice Chancellor, Prof Timothy Adebayo, acted swiftly and effectively. The response was prompt and well-coordinated, contrary to the way and manner that the editorial portrays the University, implying that ACU has been indifferent to the emotional and psychological impact of the incident. We therefore respectfully request that your newspaper publishes our rejoinder to set the records straight as to the incorrect assertions in the editorial given that misinformation can cause unnecessary distress to the families involved and our University community.
- Atoyebi is Public Relations Officer, Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, Nigeria
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