On the morning of Friday, October 30 2026, the UCJ released a report about happenings that were observed during the press night, and it was then picked up by different individuals to run their political agenda.
Alongside that, allegations were levied against the integrity of the UCJ and the UCJ was said to have been aligned with a candidate or against a candidate.
This article is meant to be a follow-up to the earlier story on the press night happenings.
The man by the door
For this, given that the EiC of the UCJ, Mr Emmanuel Utibe, had resolved not to escalate the issue to taking the person to the security unit after it was resolved that the individual involved was a student and an opportunity for mercy might be needed to prevent bringing him consequences beyond what he might have anticipated, the story was published withholding his identity to pass the message without bringing the individual to further public scrutiny.
But given how the matter has been handled, there would be no need for that any further.
Mr Adebayo Sabbath Samuel, a 300-level student of Food Technology and a resident of Independence Hall, was the person who was caught at the door trying to gain entry as a member of IndyPress.
He was held down by the Editor-in-Chief of the UCJ and the Editor-in-Chief of IndyPress, Mr Gbayesola Samuel, alongside two members of the security unit and Mr Kazeem Michael, a member of SUEC.
During the exchange, he was questioned on his identity and his motive, and he presented his student ID card, from which his full identity was obtained.
As was noted earlier, for the sake of mercy, as was advocated by other persons present there, when asked, we said that the issue should not be escalated further by first taking him to the security unit.
Mr Najimdeen Robiu Ayomide, aka Surest, the current Secretary of State of Independence Hall, who came around then, was asked to identify him, and he identified Mr Sabbath as a Kantagite, but said he didn’t know if he was a member of IndyPress.
If Mr Sabbath believes that he is innocent of these accusations, then we believe that he reserves the right to be ready to take up this case with the Students Disciplinary Council, as he would have been wrongly accused by the UCJ, and the UCJ would gladly be present to tender further evidence before that panel.
Soliciting pressmen
Indeed, while the press night was strictly by invitation, and by design it was only pressmen and members of the Electoral Commission who were allowed into the hall, as the event proceeded, some persons came into the back of the hall.
Also, different persons who tagged along with different members of the SUEC came into the hall. It was during this time that they approached certain pressmen seated towards the back.
This happened because, aside from the press, members of the electoral commission was allowed into the hall and they too controlled access into the hall.
Mr Fatope, the EiC of AFAS Press, was also among those approached on the day of the press night, although he was approached at the start of the press night just before stepping into the hall.
Meanwhile, days before the press night, RT. Hon Shoge Quadri, the erstwhile SRC speaker, approached Mr Tikristi, the UCJ General Secretary, asking for press night questions.
Additionally for the issue of an attempt at getting the questions, find attached below a screenshot taken yesterday of one such message from Mr Adeyefa Ebenezer, President of the Faculty of Art and a resident of Indy Hall, soliciting questions from a pressman.
Mr Ebenezer was one of the persons who approached several people both in their DMs and physically to solicit questions and favour towards his boys.
As can be seen from the screenshot, Mr Ebenezer turned on disappearing messages just before sending this particular message. This was a tactic he employed while messaging several pressmen, including a UCJ executive. We assume that this was done in order to clean up the trail of the happenings and give room for deniability.
For the avoidance of doubt, find attached screenshots from today
Again, if anyone who has been named so far believes that this report so far is false, then the UCJ has slandered them, and they reserve the right to take it up to the SDC, and the UCJ will gladly be present with more testimonies to defend its case.
Conclusion
Elections are a contest to gain power and may be intense, but we, with all right-thinking individuals, believe that elections must not be driven by so much desperation that they would be marked by dirty politics and the urge to win by all means.
Lastly, the UCJ would like to kindly advise everyone involved that dirty politicking doesn’t profit and doesn’t prosper.
