FOR his perceived opposition to the cause of workers, the Dean, Clinical Sciences, Lagos State University College of Medicine, Professor Babatunde Solagberu, yesterday got a raw deal as he was held hostage for several hours.

According to a statement by the Dean, the workers, who he alleged, were members of Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU); Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) came to his office and forcibly took him away.

He said: "On Monday, November 2, 2009 at about some minutes to 12 noon, I was forcefully kidnapped against my wishes and personal liberty from my office by a mob of unionists, carrying sticks and other dangerous weapons and chanting war slogans that they were looking for the Dean, Clinical Medicine who had dissociated himself from their struggle, to teach him a lesson of his life."

Solagberu said he was taken hostage in the presence of the Head of Radiology Department, one Professor Olanrewaju.

According to him, the mob initially mistook Olanrewaju for him, but he had to own up to prevent further attack on him.

Narrating his ordeal in the hands of the mob who, he alleged, came in three buses, Solagberu said the workers threatened to imprison him at Badagry until the institution's vice chancellor resigns from the university.

He said as soon as he was herded into one of the buses, the convoy drove at breaking-neck speed through Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, making a U-turn to Toyin Street, Allen Avenue, Awolowo Road, all in Ikeja until they got to the Lagos State House of Assembly, Alausa.

The dean who did not disclose the mission of the workers at the assembly complex noted that his perceived opposition was borne out of a memorandum presented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor during a public hearing on October 22, 2009, that drew the ire of the workers.

According to him, he was part of those who drafted the memorandum - which content may not have favoured the workers.

Solagberu said while dealing on him several blows and raining curses on him, some of the workers took pity on him and appealed to his captors to accord him some level of dignity.

This, the dean noted, did not go down well with some of them and at a point they engaged in a free-for-all which gave him the opportunity to plot his escape.

He said he was however caught by the mob shortly after having been exhausted.

But, according to him, at the nick of time, a good Samaritan, who he later identified as his secondary school classmate whom he last saw in 1981 came to his rescue.

However, Solagberu said, his friend's request to the workers that he be released to them was rebuffed by the workers who insisted that since he was taken from the campus by the workers, they had instructions that they must return him.

He said after leaving the assembly complex, the convoy met the security officer of the teaching hospital who eventually accompanied him back to the hospital.

When contacted on telephone yesterday, Solagberu said he could not talk much as he was at the State Police Headquarters to lodge a formal complaint.

Also, the Public Relations Officer of the state Command, Mr. Frank Mba, told The Guardian that he was yet to be briefed, adding "I don't know anything about it. I will find out."