On Thursday, students of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State, kicked against harassment and arrests by policemen attached to the state command.

The students said that the policemen arrested innocent students on Thursday morning, a move that made FUNAAB scholars stage a protest.

“Around 6:30 am today, the Police came to arrest innocent students of FUNAAB. The students got angry and mobilised themselves to stop the illegal arrest. They picked up three students who are still in their custody. This is not their first time, they’ve been doing it for long. How long will this continue?” wrote @anthonystilldey, an X user.

Around 6:30 AM today, the @PoliceNG came to arrest innocent students of FUNAAB. The students got angry and mobilized themselves to stop the illegal arrest. They picked up 3 students who are still in their custody. This is not their first time, they’ve been doing it for long. How… pic.twitter.com/FxmW08dkzJ— 𝔸𝕟𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕟𝕪 ℕ𝕠𝕥 𝕁𝕠𝕤𝕙𝕦𝕒👾 (@anthonystilldey) January 9, 2025

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Alongside the post is a video clip showing a group of male students, policemen and a police vehicle. Inscribed on the back of the jacket of one of the officers is the word “SWAT”.

The Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) is a unit of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). It was formed in 2020 after the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) following the nationwide #EndSARS protest against incessant police brutality and extrajudicial killings in Nigeria.

The police force had announced that the mandate of the SWAT team would be strictly intelligence-led and limited to: response to robbery attacks, response to scenes of weapon-related crimes, rescue operations as well as special operations involving high-profile criminals that constitute threats to national security including anti-banditry, counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations which will require special tactical response.

A screenshot of the SWAT officer.

In the video, voices, seemingly those of students, can be heard: “They wan clear us for road.” “Na person wey shoot us be this.” “Who stabbed you?”

A police officer whose face is not shown can also be heard in the clip saying, “When you come to the office, I will show you the petition. We did not come in the midnight. We came around 5:00 am.”

One of the students later broke into a song which was chorused by others: “Baba come and see o… wetin we dey suffer…“

When FIJ called Afeez Opeyemi, the public relations officer of the university’s student union government (SUG), he confirmed that some students were arrested on Thursday. He, however, did not share more details.

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“The students union will issue a comprehensive press release later this evening. I think you should look out for that. We are still in the process of gathering more information. I may not be able to share more details now as we are still in the discussions,” he told FIJ.

“We have met with the commissioner of police. We are still in discussions to ensure that we do not have such occurrences around our campuses anymore. But for now, we are putting together a press release, which will be out on our Twitter page.”

When FIJ asked if the students were still in police custody, Opeyemi said, “Some students were arrested earlier today. That was why we had a meeting with the police.”

Omolola Odutola, the spokesperson of Ogun Police, could not be reached for comments as phone calls went unanswered at press time.
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