The Take It Back Movement, TIB, has called on the management of the University of Ibadan (UI) to stop the continued persecution of three students and comply with a Federal High Court judgment ordering the lifting of their suspension.
TIB made the call in a statement dated September 16, 2026, signed by its Oyo State Coordinator, Dimeji Salako.
The three students — Aduwo Ayodele, Nice Linus and Olamide Gbadegesin — have been at the centre of a dispute with the university management.
According to a statement released by the Oyo State Chapter of the Take It Back Movement, the university management has continued to explore legal and administrative avenues aimed at frustrating the students’ return and continued education despite the subsisting court judgment.
TIB said the University of Ibadan should be a place that promotes learning, intellectual freedom and critical thinking, rather than an institution where students are targeted for speaking out and organising around issues affecting their education.
“The court has spoken. The students have been allowed to return,” TIB said, adding that the university management should respect the authority of the court and allow the students to continue their education.
The movement also expressed concern over the resources being committed to what it described as prolonged legal proceedings involving the three students. TIB argued that public universities are already facing inadequate funding, deteriorating infrastructure, overcrowded facilities and other challenges, stressing that scarce university resources should instead be directed towards classrooms, laboratories, libraries, hostels, teaching facilities and other pressing needs.
It further called on the university management to explain to students, staff, parents, alumni and the wider public why institutional resources should continue to be spent on legal proceedings surrounding the suspension and reinstatement of the three students.
TIB also said public resources should be used to build the university and not to pursue students, adding that university management is not above the law.
The movement listed five demands: the immediate end to the persecution of the three students; respect for the court’s judgment; an end to the waste of university resources; an end to the criminalisation of student activism; and guarantees for the safety and academic freedom of the affected students.
TIB said the matter goes beyond Aduwo Ayodele, Nice Linus and Olamide Gbadegesin, arguing that it concerns every student who may one day question an unjust policy, demand accountability or speak out on issues affecting their education.
The movement called on students, academic workers, civil society organisations, parents, alumni and other defenders of democratic rights to demand accountability from the University of Ibadan management.
“The University must obey the law. The UI3 must be allowed to study. University resources must serve education, not persecution,” TIB said.
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