Without being sycophantic there are numerous indications attesting to the activeness of the incumbent executive council. The exceptional zeal of the Information and Propaganda Minister, a seemingly reverberating gyration amplified by the minister of socials, the tank-washing exercise on Saturday led by the health minister, and the quite dramatic night patrols by the defence team. However, on a more than cursory observation, the latter instance is quite perturbing.
From the days of Otueke, and perhaps earlier on, the Zik hall defence team has prided itself as an exemplary outfit, providing reliable security support within and outside the four walls of Zik hall. This has earned them the respect of the students and management alike within the hall. For instance, the Hall Warden, Dr. Adebiyi, has been known to voice with much feeling that the defence committee members are top priority when it comes to accommodation. Rightly so! To remain functional and serve the security of the hall, members of the defence team have to be available within the hall, and what better way to ensure this than guaranteeing their accommodation.
But this is not to address the accommodation preferences enjoyed by the defence team. The defence team’s flair for service is notable and was recently well showcased. On Thursday, the 10th of February, 2022, group members on the “Issues Affecting Zik Hall” group chat, a WhatsApp platform dedicated to discussing Zikites’ plights, woke to messages on the group with pictures of numerous gadgets seized from Zikites by the defence team. The message sends out a warning for security consciousness. To clarify, what had a happened was that the defence team had conducted their patrols on that morning, at around 4:00am. They checked for security lapses by challenging occupants of rooms with unlocked doors.
As a penalty for not taking security precautions, sleeping off with the doors unlocked, the gadgets of defualters were seized and could only be retrieved upon payment of a fine. This mode of operation by the defence team is not strange though. In previous administrations, the defence team has adopted this measure, seizing the gadgets of Zikites who negligently make themselves prone to theft by sleeping off without properly locking up. When this happens the defaulters have to claim their devices by paying a fine.
This modus operandi has been met with mixed feelings. On one hand the practice is justifiable on the grounds that it teaches the defaulter to be security conscious. It simulates the reality of theft and the bitter experience victims undergo, especially when they had contributed negligently to the theft occurrence. Again, this measure shows that the defence of the hall against theft or insecurity requires the cooperation of everyone. In addition one can throw in the fact that enough online and offline awareness has been made on the need to take simple personal security measures, including the locking of doors before sleeping.
On the other hand, this measure is perceived as needless and inappropriate. Some go to the point of arguing that it’s an infringement of privacy for anyone to remove another’s property without permission whether in theft cases or in the course of duty as a defence team member. This view glorifies individual responsibility against the involvement of administrative authorities in matters of personal security. Notwithstanding these differing views, the recent move of the defence team has received acclamation by Zikites, physically and virtually. Still, there is more to the story that could induce a rethink of the defence team’s methods.
An occupant of C 66, whose gadget was seized tells his story.
“At around 4:30 am, I went out to wash my plates. My door was opened and my roommate was inside reading his books. Coming back I saw them carrying my system. I started to drag it with them that they should give me my system so far they had met someone awake in the room who was reading. They refused to listen to me and I kept telling them that they saw someone awake and they still carried my system. The door was only opened because I had gone out to wash my plates in the kitchenette and the fact that my roommate was awake reading means that he had secured the room for us. I could not get my phone back throughout the day in spite of numerous pleas. A member of the defence team called ‘hall warden’ was the one with the gadgets. He asked me to meet Mr. Seyi, one of the porters, who said I should come around 9:00pm and that I had to bail my system with N500.”
Another Zikite staying in C 69 shares his experience. He pleads anonymity.
“I was sitting on my bed when they came in. The time was around 4:30am, it was almost morning when some people even go out to get water. I was like boss how far? They said, you didn’t lock your door. I explained that I had gone out to ease myself and they came after I got back to my room. Still, they insisted on taking my gadgets. I decided to take it cool with them and even calmed my friend who was becoming confrontational. They told me that they had the Hall Warden’s (Dr. Femi Adebiyi) approval to seize gadgets and I respected that. When it was day, I still could not get my gadgets back. I was asked to meet Mr. Seyi who, after narrating the incidence to, asked me if I really wasn’t asleep when they came. He was evidently surprised that they would take the gadgets of someone awake. I was really stressed by the ordeal and was lucky to have some change with me which I used to eat because I usually make payments through transfer. I had an uncompleted group work to submit that day and was only lucky that the submission was postponed”.
A similar ordeal was narrated by a finalist who claimed that he was conscious when the defence team came into his room. He says, “my phone has not been with me since morning and it’s already 8:00pm now. I have not eaten all day and I have ulcer. I’m not saying they shouldn’t do their work but people were conscious and they still took their phones. A thief can’t enter my room and take my property while I am awake”.
Another unsettling issue with the defence team’s methods is the fishy way the mandated N500 fine was remitted. The occupant in C 69 made it known to ZHPO that to recover his gadgets, he paid the fine by transfer to an account in the name of Matthew Owoh, who is a member of the defence team. Begrudged by the situation he bemoans, “At first I was asked to pay N1000 for my laptop and phone but I refused and paid only N500 for both. I wasn’t given any receipt as proof of payment. I was told by Matthew that the money is going to the Hall Warden, but it doesn’t happen that way. Any money paid as fine in the hall is not paid to the Hall Warden but to an account in the hall’s name. Whether he delivers the money or not nobody knows. It was evening before I got my phone back, and I already had 22 missed calls, one from my mum who has been hospitalized. Now where I know that there is a contradiction was when one of us whose phone was also seized was able to call the Hall Warden. The Hall Warden instructed Matthew to return that person’s phone and I’m sure if the rest of us had contacted the Hall Warden too we would have gotten our gadgets back, instead we had to wait for over 12 hours”.
These accounts raise questions of indiscretion in the defence team’s methods. How much should the defence team regulate personal security – is it a must for doors to be locked at night whether or not the room occupants are awake? Secondly, in cases where the room occupants are awake but fail to lock their doors, should their gadgets be seized? Thirdly, should such occupants have to pay fine before recovering their gadgets? To give clarifications to these posers, the Defence Minister, Aribisala Christopher (alias CK), was contacted by a ZHPO correspondent. However, at the time of making this report, the Defence Minister remains mum on the issue.
Perhaps the defence team’s methods are justifiable regardless of the voiced discontents. However, as the Hall Warden instructed that all gadgets should be restored to their owners and all paid fines refunded one might think of the defence team’s methods as underhanded.
Saint
