There was a commotion at the faculty of Law, Rivers State University RSU, following a viral video that showed some lecturers assaulting a female student with scissors, for allegedly violating the hair regulation for female students of the Faculty.
In the video, the lecturers who were identified as Blessing Timothy and Melford Itari, were seen attempting to forcefully cute the female student hair, identified as Princess Amadi.
Princess Amadi, narrated what transpired to newsman, she said, “It happened on Thursday at 11 am. They were going round for sensitisation on dress code. I was leaving my class and she (Timothy) called me to where she was. She started asking me: ‘What’s wrong with your dressing?’ ‘My bag?’ I replied. ‘Your bag is not my issue,’ she answered. ‘I asked her, what?’ ‘Are you asking me?’ She replied, turning to ask her colleague, ‘tell this girl what is wrong with her dressing. ‘ ‘Your hair, the colleague said. ‘My hair?’ I turned around saying ‘my hair is not long.’
“What do you mean by that? Is this the approved colour of hair?’’ the lecturer asked her.
“You’re trying to show that you’re very stubborn,’’ she quoted the lecturer to have said. She revealed that the lecturers insisted that even if her father was the governor, they would still have her hair cut.
Adding that she was pinned down by the male lecturer, Itari, while the female lecturer, Timothy, cut her hair.
Reacting to the development, the Law Students Association of Nigeria, the National umbrella body for undergraduate law students in the country has condemned the actions of the lecturers.
“The Attorney General of the Association, Kelechi Nwodo, said issues of physical assault against law students in faculties across the country in the guise of dress code enforcement has reached an alarming and very embarrassing level.
The statement read partly: “My attention has been brought to a distasteful and highly scandalous video emanating from your Faculty which showed an unruly display of aggression, intimidation and conduct likely to cause bodily harm, and disdain for the dignity of students by some lecturers of the Faculty masquerading as dress code enforcers.
“As evinced in the video, the said lecturers, Timothy and Itari, did not only harass the female student, but also endangered her life as the scissors wielded by Timothy in the video could have caused severe and life-threatening injury to the young student in the course of the encounter.”
