UI suspends campus journalist for 2016 article on poor hostel facilities

The management of the University of Ibadan has suspended Kunle Adebajo, a 500 level student of the faculty of law, for two semesters.

Adebajo, who was supposed to proceed to Law School, was suspended over his 2016 article, UI: The irony of fashionable rooftops and awful interiors, published by The Guardian.

In a statement released on Friday, Free Campus Press Movement, a body of campus journalists from different universities in Nigeria, urged the management to rescind on their decision.

“While we are not contesting the powers of the university to discipline Students, we are very much concerned that the institution management found it very convenient to suspend Kunle Adebajo for his investigative feature titled “UI: The irony of fashionable rooftops and awful interiors” published in Guardian Newspaper,” the statement read.

“Not only do we find this strange in the current dispensation of modern terms and in the post-colonial era, we also find it strange that the university failed to observe that this intellectual work did not in anyway abuse or defame any personality nor institution but rather aimed to improve the standard of the University.

“We are deeply disappointed that a university of prestige and calibre like University of Ibadan will fail to observe that ethics of journalism requires objectivity, we feel the objectivity of Kunle Adebajo was seen as subjectivity by the university management which is appaling.

“We would not fold our arms, we call on all well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the university management to rescind the suspension of Mr Adebajo.”

Additional reporting by Uthman Samad