Authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, have shed further light on the incident leading to the killing of a veterinary technologist, Mr. Olabode Olawuyi, by a nine-year-old lion on Monday.
According to the Chairman of the National Association of Non-Academic Staff of Universities, OAU branch, Mr Wole Odewumi, the veterinary technologist was attacked by the lion while he was attempting to rescue a woman that was first attacked by the lion.
“I spoke to some of his colleagues, and they told me what happened. The lion attacked a woman first. The woman is also a staff working at the zoo.
“The deceased intervened to free the woman from the lion. He must have assumed that the lion would recognize him, but his intervention to free the woman must have infuriated the animal. The lion left the woman and attacked him squarely.
“After he was freed from the lion’s grip, they rushed him to the health centre on campus here. He, however, died before he got there. But the second person that was attacked, a woman, is still on admission receiving treatment presently,” Odewumi explained.
It was gathered that the deceased was aged 58, having been born on December 22nd, 1965 and would have retired from service in 2025.
