Security outfit of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) has been accused of doing its job in flagrant disregard to the rights of students, workers and activists within the university community.

According to Chinedu Bosah of Education Rights Campaign (ERC) at UNIBEN, himself and another colleague, Emmanuel Adikwe, recently suffered untold hardship in the hands of security operatives and some officials of management.

"On April 15, 2008, we were arrested by the some crude security operatives of the university while distributing our ERC leaflets calling for proper funding of education alongside selling of Socialist Democracy, a publication of Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), to some of our members and other students and workers.

"We were subsequently marched at gunpoint by four private security operatives, two of them carrying hunters' guns to the PRO's office and finally to the CSO's office, where we were kept for more than an hour under strict interrogation - the type normally conducted by men of the State Security Services (SSS). The men with guns were in 'colonial police' uniform and are within an average age bracket of between 60 and 70 years presumably recruited from the community of local hunters," Bosah said.

He stated that when they questioned the rationale for such treatment, the security officials and officials of the management arrogantly claimed they were relying on the orders of the Prof. Nwanze-led management. Besides, they stated that before anything should be done on campus permission must be sought and received from the VC.

"During our observation while interacting with students, it was obvious they were under siege from the school's management and their private security. We were reliably informed that students could not freely hold meetings on campus let alone distribute leaflets and paste posters without permit from the management, who always used all measures to stop any activities they do not agree with. Rights of the students and workers have been completely eroded while high-handedness and brutality by the security and management reign supreme," he said.

According to Bosah, such dehumanising treatment were not new as recently a statement credited to the UNIBEN ASUU Chairman, Dr. Kashetu Ilavbarhe, strongly criticised the school's management for using the security apparatus to harass workers.

"The article was published recently in the media and it is a fact despite denial by the management through the Acting Registrar and Secretary to Council and Senate, Mrs. C.M. Ojomo, in a statement published in The Nation of Thursday, July 3, 2008. The regular reports we have been getting of ruthless harassment and suppression of democratic rights from students are horrible and most unfortunate," he added.

It was also gathered that the situation was similar to what obtains at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, where local hunters commonly known as 'crackers' use arms illegally to harass and intimidate students and workers.

"The ERC is not comfortable with the use of arms by these private securities," Bosah said, adding that it was undemocratic for a private security outfit under the exclusive control of the managements of public institutions to determine how students and workers must conduct themselves even when such conducts do not constitute danger for anyone.

The group reminded the VCs and school managements across the federation that the so-called Public Order Act relied upon in the past by the police had been quashed and rendered undemocratic and unconstitutional by Justice Anwuli Chikere of the Federal High Court in a judgement delivered on June 26, 2005, and subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal, saying what was happening currently in most campuses could be likened to what happens under fascist and military regimes wherein democratic rights are quashed by whatever force.

"We hold the view that the huge sums of money expended on security is wasteful and such money can be judiciously used to carry out laudable projects such as reviving the deplorable state of libraries, laboratories, etc. The security on campuses should be organised such that students and workers will actively participate in securing the campuses and to democratically determine the character and direction. We stand to be challenged that this high-handedness by managements were carried out because the managements and the VCs are not accountable to students, parents and workers and so hundreds of millions of Naira are being wasted on any project without recourse to students and workers' welfare and well-being," the group stated.

The ERC said the fact remains that UNIBEN and other campuses were primarily environments where students learn to take initiatives, be creative and analytically minded, which can be actualised in an environment that encourages debate, expression of independent opinions and not barracks, where orders are always forced top down.

It added that the culture of intimidation by the Prof. Nwanze-led management through the security apparatus wherein students, activists and workers are forcefully stopped from expressing themselves freely promotes cultism and other underground vices, "and we call on all higher institutions (UNIBEN, OAU etc.) that engage in anti-democratic acts to immediately desist from it.

ERC therefore, demanded that all manner of security apparatus in UNIBEN, OAU and other campuses should be under the control and management of an elected committee(s) of students, workers (academic and non-academic) in order to forestall all manner of arbitrariness and high-handedness that will lead to suppression of democratic rights