Ibadan Poly sports director stabbed; student injured over football match

The sports director of the National Association of Polytechnic Engineering Students (NAPES), the Ibadan Polytechnic Chapter, Tobi Oyeniyi, was on Wednesday stabbed in the head while a student was brutally beaten.

The incident took place after the Faculty of Engineering (FENG) Queens lost a football match to their colleagues in the faculty of Business and Communications Studies (FBCS) Queens.

The annual inter-faculty football competition was held at the Sport Pavilion, North Campus of The Polytechnic, Ibadan.

An HND student of the institution who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES said Mr Oyeniyi and the student were attacked after the football match.

He said Mr Oyeniyi’s shirt was drenched in his blood.

“The awful scenario began with the culprits intimidating the FENG QUEENS TEAM after the match, and as the sport director and head coach of the faculty team, he had to come to the rescue of his players.

“During the match, despite the fact that we were losing with two goals to nil, we were still joking around and maintaining a mutual rapport with the opposite team from FBCS.

“But then, the culprits started with the throwing of sachet water into our midst to erupt violence, but we still maintained our calmness.

“I did not see the need why FBCS would attack them because they won them already, and that the perpetrator of the heinous act were not the opposite team from the FBCS following the chants they made after perpetrating it”.

Hundreds of students of the Polytechnic, especially those from the Faculty of Engineering, protest against the violence and attack of their colleagues.

The students, on Thursday morning, barricaded the main entrance and other gates leading to the institution in protest against the stabbing of Mr Oyeniyi and the injured student, whose identity is yet to be revealed.

They carried various placards bearing various solidarity songs.

The Public Relations Officer of the Polytechnic, Soladoye Adewole, confirmed the incident to PREMIUM TIMES.

Mr Adewole, in a telephone conversation with our correspondent Thursday morning, said the students protested against the violence and not against the school management.

“They did not protest against the school,” he said.

“They had a football match yesterday and it resulted into fracas.

“It is an in-fight between them.

“And the school authority has taken the necessary actions. They are not protesting against the school”.