ACCIDENT OR ASSASSINATION :Photo of bullet -ridden body of Asuu president Festus iyayi(viewers discretion is allowed)

The nature of two holes on the late Professor
Festus Iyayi’s body gives life to suspicions
by his colleagues that he may have been
shot.
Along with grief, anger will be the dominant
emotion when Professor Festus Iyayi is
buried this week in his hometown, Ugbegun
in Edo State. The two feelings have mixed,
predictably with unsavoury outcomes, since
the former president of the Academic Staff
Union of Universities, ASUU, died on 12
November in an auto accident on the
Lokoja-Abuja Expressway.
Iyayi was travelling to Kano in the company
of three other ASUU members for a meeting
on the ongoing strike by members of the
union when a police escort van in the
convoy of the Governor Idris Wada of Kogi
State rammed into the bus the university
teachers were travelling. Iyayi died instantly,
while three his colleagues were seriously
injured.
Wada, who was severely injured in an
accident involving his convoy last year, was
widely criticised by ASUU and the wider
public for his failure to learn from his own
experience and for allegedly failing to stop
to assist the victims.

The escort vehicle was said to have veered
off from its lane to hit the bus bearing the
ASUU members, a claim the Kogi State
government denied.
The Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, called
for an official inquiry into Iyayi’s death and
urged the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC,
to curb the recklessness of official convoys.
The FRSC also got a slice of the criticisms,
following an accusation that it was shielding
the driver of the vehicle that smashed into
the bus conveying Iyayi and his colleagues.
One week after, ASUU dismissed the view
that Iyayi’s death was accidental and
forcefully contested the official claim that
his heart was pierced by a strange object at
the accident scene. The association pointedly
blamed the death on the government and
“its agents”. In a statement issued by the
University of Benin chapter of the union,
ASUU said Iyayi did not die in an accident,
but was “wilfully” murdered. The union said
it will demand concrete answers from the
government for the alleged murder. It
demanded that an autopsy be performed on
Iyayi’s corpse and warned government
officials to stay away from the burial.
“His burial should not be an avenue for
government officials to score cheap political
points, as we will resist any state
involvement in the burial,” the union raved.
Civil society groups in Edo State also
demanded an inquiry into Iyayi’s death.
Was Iyayi murdered? ASUU believes it has
what constitutes prima facie evidence to
support its suspicion. Members of the union
point to two holes, one in the chest and
another in the back, as offering a less than
complicated indication that Iyayi was shot.
Photographs of Iyayi’s corpse obtained by
this magazine, show holes that look like
entry and exit bullet holes.

Saharareporters