LASU debunks arrest of 11 students with weapons

AUTHORITIES of the Lagos State University (LASU) have described as untrue, a report published recently by a Lagos based evening newspaper, that 11 students of the University were arrested with guns by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).At a briefing in Lagos, an apparently unhappy Acting Director of the institution's Information, Press and Public Relations, Dr. Sola Fosudo, who condemned the report and described it as untrue, wondered why the newspaper did not verify its story before going to press. He called on the newspaper to retract the story.Fosudo asserted that contrary to the report, LASU's Acting Chief Security officer, had visited the SARS office with team, where the 11 arrested suspects were paraded. He noted that only one of the 11 suspects was discovered to be a bona fide LASU student.He explained that the identified fellow, Olupooye Funsho Alade, a 400level Political Science student with matriculation number 08/06/31/050, had on February 29 this year, been arrested on campus for being in possession of charms and was highly suspected of belonging to a cult group.Men of the SARS had, while on patrol on March 16 at Ijanikin, along the Lagos Badagry expressway, arrested 11 suspects for shooting a suspected member of Aiye confraternity, a cult group.Fosudo said, 'while the report had a screaming headline, the body of the story revealed that only three of the suspects claimed to be students of LASU. Then, our own investigation further revealed that only one out of the three is our student, because he was the only one that could identify his matriculation number, name the head of his department and others.'After the findings, he said, the (LASU) team went back to meet with the commissioner of Police, because 'we learnt it was the Police that gave the information to the press.' He continued, 'the commissioner called the PPRO and Commander of SARS and told them to find a way and send a retraction. We are not pleased with the way that report was carried. We are very serious about renewing and repositioning and we don't want people carrying news frivolously about LASU anymore, without contacting us to state our own side of the story, for a balanced and objective report.'Also, the Chairman of the LASU Security Management Committee, Dr. Segun Whenu pleaded with the public to always consider LASU's environment in all their dealings and statements. He stated, 'our environment is one of our major challenges. We are in the midst of social miscreants. If agberos, at the nearby motor park, OPC, Arewa, barrack boys, or Alaba boys are fighting, they will say it is LASU, because we are in their midst. So, there is need the university to be contacted before any report is published.
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