In videos obtained by SaharaReporters, the students were seen holding placards and chanting: “Minister Wike, we demand you compensate the people whose houses you demolished.” 

The Alliance of Nigerian Students Against Neoliberal Attacks (ANSA) has condemned what it calls the brutal arrest and manhandling of two Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) students by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) following a protest against the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.

The arrested students, Joshua Temitope Oladepo, who is also ANSA’s National Coordinator, and Kelechi Ejike, earlier staged a protest during the university’s 2025 lecture held at the Oduduwa Hall, Ile-Ife, Osun State.

In videos obtained by SaharaReporters, the students were seen holding placards and chanting: “Minister Wike, we demand you compensate the people whose houses you demolished.” 

The demonstration briefly interrupted the lecture, where Wike, a former Rivers State governor, delivered a keynote address. 

Other dignitaries at the event included the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun; former Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi; and former Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom.

Shortly after the protest began, DSS officers were seen dragging the students out of the venue before taking them into custody.

Reacting to the incident, ANSA released a statement on Thursday, accusing the university of repressing students voices and collaborating with Wike.

The group said: “We hold the administration of Professor Simeon Bamire directly responsible for this cowardly crackdown on dissent. The shameless collaboration between the university management and a tainted figure like Nyesom Wike, a man with a track record of authoritarianism, repression, and betrayal of the Nigerian people, reveals the moral and political bankruptcy of the OAU management.

“That the university would open its gates to a man infamous for his anti-people policies is not just an insult to the values of Obafemi Awolowo University, it is a desecration of its historic legacy. The administration’s role in facilitating this charade, and then repressing students who dare to resist, marks a new low in the commercialization of our institutions and the silencing of critical voices.

“We demand the immediate and unconditional release of our comrades. We urge the Nigerian public, the Great Ife Students’ Union, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), other progressive unions, civil society groups, the media, and all defenders of justice to rise in condemnation of this repression.“

The group, therefore, demands an immediate and unconditional release of Oladepo Joshua and Kelechi Ejike.

The statement added: “An end to the monetisation of the dignity and reputation of Obafemi Awolowo University by the Professor Bamire-led administration and the immediate declaration of anti-people characters like Nyesom Wike as Persona Non Grata on the OAU campus.”