The Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State, has closed its zoological park after a nine-year-old lion killed a zookeeper, Mr. Olabode Olawuyi, on Monday.
Speaking with the press on Tuesday, Mr. Wole Odewumi, Chairman of the National Association of Non-Academic Staff of Universities, OAU section, said the university’s management had closed the garden.
He added that the zookeeper was attacked by the lion while attempting to release a woman who had been previously assaulted by the lion.
Odewumi said, “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 member working at the zoo.
“The deceased intervened to free the woman from the lion. He must have assumed that the lion would recognise him. 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 and receiving treatment presently.”
