Ogun Police Command on Monday arrested 10 students of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, for rioting.
Mr Mohammad Abdulkadri, the Assistant Police Commissioner in charge of Operations, confirmed the arrest, saying two buses were also seized from the rioting students.
Abdulkadri, however, said no life was lost during the protest as being claimed by the students.
The students had staged a protest against the university’s decision not to allow unregistered students participate in the Harmattan examination.
The students blocked the entrance into the university with two Students’ Union Government (SUG) buses to prevent staff from gaining entrance.
The second semester examination expected to commence on Monday was immediately suspended as a result of the incident.
A government statement on Sunday had warned students, who had not completed the registration formalities or fully paid their school fees, to stay away from the university’s premises during the examination.
The statement was signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Taiwo Adeoluwa.
Pleas made by Abdulkadri and Ijebu-Ode Police Area Commander, Usman Alabi, to the protesting students to allow movement in and out of the campus was ignored.
The police subsequently fired tear gas to disperse the students, resulting in a stampede.
Investigation revealed that the institution had also directed the students to regularise their studentship before the commencement of the examination.
The regularisation, according to the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Saburi Adesanya, was in line with the National Universities Commission’s directive requesting all universities to provide a comprehensive students audit within the next six weeks.
Adesanya added that the only way for the university to achieve this was to compile the list of bonafide students who had been duly registered through payment of school fees.
According to him, the protesting students were those who failed to meet the deadline to regularise their studentship before the commencement of the examination.
The vice chancellor said the deadline, which was Friday, had been shifted more than three times to allow the students complete their registration.
Reacting, the Vice President of the institution’s Students Union Government (SUG), Miss Kikelomo Ajayi, said the body had campaigned for extension of the deadline to enable students complete their registration.
Ajayi, who said students commended the institution’s management for the extension of the deadline in the past, added that the closure of the school portal for payment and generation of receipt made registration difficult.
She said efforts by the SUG to appeal to the institution’s authority to give the affected students more time was rebuffed.
Ajayi also admitted that the police only used tear gas to disperse the students.
