By Ibrahim Taiwo, Usman
At the first Ordinary Sitting of the University of Ibadan Students’ Representative Council (UI’SRC) held today, Saturday, 25th of April, 2026 at the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) Chamber, Kunle Adepeju Building, the Students’ Union President, Adeboye Sewanu, has addressed that the March 31st court ruling regarding the suspended three students of the university does not stand.
During his presentation of the State of the Union Report and in his defence to the question on why the University of Ibadan Students’ Union (UI’SU) has been silent on the court ruling and reinstatement of the three students (UI’3), and the state of the union report didn’t include the reinstatement of the affected students, he responded that the court ruling doesn’t stand. In his words, “the judgement was passed while the other party (the VC and the university) was not in the court, which implies the judgement is not holding”. He added that, “we are still on it and the case is not yet a dead case”.
It is to be recalled that three students of the University of Ibadan, Mide Gbadegesin, Aduwo Ayodele and Nice Linus, popularly referred to as the UI’3, were suspended for 4 semesters by the University of Ibadan Central Students’ Disciplinary Committee after their involvement in a peaceful protest on school fees hike in 2024, and afterwards have been in court to seek redress to the suspension. The final ruling occurred on Tuesday, March 31st, 2026. However, since the court ruling, neither the University of Ibadan Management nor the Students’ Union had implemented the reinstatement nor addressed it.
However, at the Ordinary Sitting today, the UI’SU President, Deboye, said the court ruling cannot be implemented because the other party to the case was absent at the ruling even though the VC showed him a letter regarding the court ruling.
Addressing this after being reached out to by UCJ’UI, Aduwo Ayodele, one of the suspended students, confirmed that while the VC himself was absent at the ruling, but throughout the case, “the VC and the University of Ibadan have been represented jointly by the same lawyer”. He affirmed that “a female lawyer represented them on the judgment day”. He added that “the judgment firmly stands”.
It should be noted that by virtue of a default judgment, a court ruling stands and legally binds even if one party is not present at the ruling, provided that the absent party was properly served with notice of the hearing.
