Edo, Delta students vow to stop Buhari over Ambrose Alli’s death

While Muhammadu Buhari, a former head of state, is savouring his victory as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which was the high point of the party’s recently concluded presidential primary in Lagos, past and present students of Edo State University (Ambrose Alli) Ekpoma, Delta State University (DELSU) and Auchi Polytechnic have vowed to use every medium available to plot his fall in the next year’s election following the imprisonment and death of Ambrose Alli, a professor and former governor of the old Bendel State.
After the military government of Buhari who was a Major-General at the time took over power, the former governor was sentenced to 100 years in prison by a military tribunal for allegedly misappropriating N983, 000 in funds for a road project and was later freed when Gabriel Igbinedion, paid a fine to the government, but shockingly died at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) in Lagos on September 22, 1989 on his 60th birthday.
“I am a graduate of Ambrose Alli University, formerly called BENSU. Ambrose Alli, was the man that built the school; the same man built 250 schools in one year as governor of Bendel State. Buhari jailed him and made him blind in prison; whereas, his brother, Shagari was under house arrest in Victoria Island, Lagos. Buhari fought Corruption based on ethno-bigotry. The time has come for Bendelites to repay Buhari for the death of the best governor ever to emerge in the region,” said Samuel Meyiwa.
Also speaking to BD SUNDAY, Paschal Ejalen accused the APC’s presidential flag bearer of terminating Ambrose Alli’s political future because he saw the rising profile of the Ondo-born scholar as a threat the military would not tolerate.
“We have started mobilising both past and present students of major tertiary institutions in the defunct Beldel State against Buhari. He was responsible for the death of the greatest administrator the region has ever produced. Come February 14 2015, we the Bendelites will avenge the death of Ambrose Alli and the travail of journalists like Nduka Irabor, Tunde Thompson and others from the region who were jailed, including Tai Solarin an activist who suffered terribly under Buhari’s administration”, he said.
Papilo Ebole Theophilus, another student from the region, said he regretted the decision by Aminu Tambuwal, speaker of the House of Representatives, to step down from the presidential race. He told BD SUNDAY that it would be wise for Buhari to avoid campuses in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in the former Bendel State for election campaign purposes in order to avoid being embarrassed or even mobbed by present students who are being stirred by parents and old students who are still grieved over the imprisonment and death of Ambrose Alli, 25 years ago.
He said: “It was my father who told me how it all happened because I was very small then. Alli is still the best governor that the south-south region had seen according to what my dad told me. Today, people paint Buhari as a man without sin. A man that had done so well for the region was imprisoned and killed under Buhari’s watch. I have been able to find out more about this great Bendelite. He brought massive development to Bendel in different sectors, from the establishment of numerous post-primary schools and tertiary institutions, and massive construction of roads and housing. His main drive as governor was to increase educational opportunities. He established over 600 new secondary schools, and abolished secondary school fees. Apart from the establishment of the university, he also established various colleges of education in Ekiadolor near Benin City, Agbor, Warri, Ozoro, and three Polytechnics, with a college of agriculture and fishery proposed for Agenebode. He also established four teachers’ training colleges to supply staff to the new schools, as well as several other higher educational institutions. In 1981, he laid the foundation of the Bendel State University, which is now named Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma. We have reasons not to vote this man Buhari in standing support for our falling hero”.
Effort to reach Lai Mohammed, APC’s national publicity secretary, on the issue was not successful as several calls to his cell phone were not responded to or returned. As at the time of going to press, he had also yet to reply text message sent to his mobile phone, on the subject matter.
Ambrose Alli was elected the governor of Bendel State on the platform of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and later founded Bendel State University, now Ambrose Alli University, named after him. Many campuses in Ekpoma, Abraka and Asaba were established during his tenure. With the creation of Delta State by the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida, the university was split into two, namely: Delta State University, Abraka, and Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma. He was also a member of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1978 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.