Three student activists at the University of Ibadan, Aduwo Ayodele, Mide Gbadegesin, and Nice Linus have filed a suit against the University of Ibadan management over their victimization case for their involvement in a fee-hike protest on May 13, 2024, IndyPress reports.
During the inaugural event, where Aweda Bolaji and Busoye Opeyemi Matthias were to be sworn-in as President and Speaker respectively, Aduwo Ayodele, Nice Linus and Mide Gbadegesin displayed placards raising attention to impending fee hikes.
It will be recalled that Ayodele Aduwo and Mide Gbadegesin were handed four semesters suspension after the Central Students Disciplinary Committee (CSDC) sitting, held on July 14, 2025.
The suspension of the duo for four semesters was condemned by several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International Nigeria.
Amnesty called for the immediate reversal of their suspension, while asserting the students’ right to a peaceful protest.
“Amnesty International strongly condemns the suspension and the relentless persecution of Ayodele Aduwo, Nice Linus and Mide Gbadegesin by the University Of Ibadan for speaking up against outrageous fee hike in 2024. The decision of the university to suspend them for four semesters must be reversed,” Amnesty International wrote.
“No one should be punished for decrying the university’s fee hike during Nigeria’s worst economic crisis in a generation.”
“The management of University of Ibadan had, over a year, subjected the students to unfair processes, including series of bizarre disciplinary hearings.”
“The three students exercised their right to peaceful protest and the university has a national and international obligation to respect the right to peaceful dissent,” it added.
The victimization case of the trio is set to resume at the Federal High Court Ibadan, on Thursday, October 23, 2025, as their case, initially heard by Hon Justice Maha on September 25, 2025, was adjourned for further proceedings.
The ongoing court proceedings now place a hold on the pending disciplinary case against Nice Linus, as the court is now the only legal authority to determine the outcome of the case.
In an interview with IndyPress, Aduwo Ayodele, one of the affected students said, ”Yes, the year-long victimisation and suspension decision is in court. The UI management and the Governing Council, through their anti-student position, jointly share the unrepentant belief that holding a cardboard, with the inscription #FEESMUSTFALL, at a Students’ Union inauguration event is a sin and a grave one.”
“It is worth restating that the matter at hand is firmly rooted in the agitation of students over basic welfare. Potentially, this court development aims to demystify the UI management’s impotent repression style, particularly targeted at students who are consistent and clear against accepting impoverishing neoliberal policies on campus.”
“Students, whether as staylites or the other thousands of revolutionaries across subsequent generations, must never be distracted. The agitation remains that education should be affordable, accessible and qualitative. With more inconvenient fees and unconscionable policies on its way, we must not relent with using our natural right of expression to demand for aggregate concerns like responsible leadership, independent unionism, democratic management of the university, general end to students victimisation, accountability of all received funds and resources by the management, among other important demands.On the future of this court case, the arch of the universe may be long, but it will always bend towards justice,” he added.
This is not the first time that student activists have taken victimization cases to court and won.
It will be recalled that the former University of Ibadan Students’ Union President, Ojo Aderemi, was declared innocent in 2023 after the Federal High Court Ibadan nullified his suspension by management for leading “No ID card, no exam” protest.
