I was a ‘cultist’ while in university – Ize-Iyamu

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), for the September 19 Edo State gubernatorial election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has said that he was a member of pirates confraternity while in school, but during his time they were not as violent like obtained today by secret cult groups.

He also clarified that he never poured acid on fellow student as an undergraduate.

Speaking live on an online television programme monitored in Benin City yesterday, Ize-Iyamu explained that contrary to what is in circulation, he drew the attention of the school‎ security and took the victim for first aid treatment.

He further explained that himself and others linked to the incident were rusticated because the identity of the culprit was never known.

He said he entered the University of Benin in 1980 to read political science but later changed to law and did not graduate until 1986 because of the rustication, adding that he was a member of pirates confraternity while in school.

“When I was in the University, I was a member of the Pirates Confraternity. At that time, it was not the way it is now, we didn’t look at it as a cult arrangement that we had but some people were already coming in with tendencies that created problems and we had this group that was very confrontational and one evening, somebody reported to us that they beat up a final year student who was also close to us and they mentioned the names of those involved, and we said no, this is bad.

“Don’t also forget too that I was a student union leader, very prominent in the students union congress so myself and some persons who heard about this complain said let’s go and see the people concerned and talk to them.

“We went there and met with the people concerned, they opened the door for us and we were discussing the matter under a very cordial atmosphere only for some people to come in and before we knew it, there was smoke in the whole place and somebody shouted acid and somebody was shouting and screaming, it was there I realised that somebody has poured acid on somebody and quickly I rushed to the security post, I brought them in and we took the young man to get first aid treatment.

“Of course the school set up an enquiry and the person that was affected admitted that I was the one who brought security agents and that I was able to take him in for medical attention and I asked who poured it, he said he doesn’t really know but that when we came in they knew us that we are final year students and they are also old students and that we had a cordial interaction but that some people came in and the person who poured that acid, he knows the face but does not know his name and nobody appeared to know the name and the University said since you people don’t want to mention the name, we are going to sanction all of you involved and before we knew it they expelled us but the reason they gave was that they are expelling us for belonging to proscribed organisation.

“But the long and short of it is that we were on it for two years till 1986 when the Senate held a meeting and said these guys have been punished enough, that if you really look at the records, they were not the one that committed what actually happened so we were called back, graduated and then went to Law School”, Pastor Ize-Iyamu narrated.