No fewer than 200 policemen stormed the campus of the
Ebonyi State University (EBSU) yesterday to prevent lecturers from staging a
protest to draw attention to their ongoing strike.
The EBSU chapter of the Academic
Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) planned a peaceful protest on the
streets of Abakaliki, the state capital, but policemen prevented them from
going out of the campus.
The police team that stopped the
lecturers claimed to be acting on directives from Commissioner of Police
Maigari Dikko.
Lecturers have been on strike for
almost four months, claiming government has failed to honour agreements it
reached with ASUU on proper funding of education in the country.
The policemen, who were armed with
AK 47 rifles, tear gas and other anti -riot accessories, closed the gate
leading to the College of Agricultural Science, (CAS) campus of the university
from where the procession was to take off.
They also denied other members of
the public and students who had other reasons for coming to the school entrance
into the campus.
Policemen were also drafted to the
other three campuses of the institution: the permanent site campus at Ezzamgbo
and those at Ishieke and Presco. They claimed to have stopped the procession
from going out of the campus to prevent hoodlums from hijacking the protest.
The police were supported by other
security agencies including State Security Service, (SSS) operatives.
The EBSU-ASUU members however staged
the protest within the campus. They carried placards with the inscriptions:
“FG: Save University Education”, “FG: Do not kill University education”, “FG:
Agreement is Agreement”, “Poor University education makes every sector fake”,
“Nigeria: “Fight poor education”, “FG-ASUU Agreement! FG has reneged, Say no to
Beggarcracy,”among others. They sang solidarity songs.
The policemen did a stop-and-search
at the gate of the campus and retrieved all the materials and flyers from both
the academic and non-academics staff .
Addressing the union members, the
Divisional Police Officer in-charge of Ekumenyi Police Station, W.A Mustapha,
as ASP, said the directive to stop the rally was given by the Commissioner of
Police adding that the application made by the union for the rally was not
approved by the commissioner.
He said: “I was directed by the
police commissioner to come here and ensure that you restrict your rally within
the school premises. There are other citizens of this country going about their
normal businesses and we won’t want a situation where their movement will be
restricted.”
Tags
Politics
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ReplyDeleteWhY the protest in Abakaliki? Is that where the ASUU& FG reach the agreement? Has Abakaliki become Abuja? Does ASUU president resides in Abakaliki. Who are we decieving, are you people tired of siting at home while your emulumemt accumulates?
ReplyDeleteIf they want to protest, they should go to Abuja i believe is where their voice would be heard, Elechi bus is there. Disturbing the peace of Abakaliki residence is not called for.
The protest suppose to take place in all nigerian universities and not only in EBSU.
ReplyDeleteMorgan Ossai u are a fool,d protest took place in a university enviroment y d complain if d federal is not aware y was he stoping them wit d assistance of d police.Tell GEJ it will get to a stage in dis country dat d security forces will not be able to save him,he shud go n ask Ghaddafi,he shud go to Eygpt n c what is happening there,it will come to a time all d billions he has stolen wit his fellow criminals will not save him.D time is fast rushing towards us like a fuel close to fire
ReplyDelete@ rapheal u are a bigger fool to insult som1 dat s making sense,I had to type d first letter of ur name in small letters to tell u how low brained u are,,u are d one to flame up d country not so! Get ur fuel ready idiot!!Asuu no longer wants to seat at home n rest n go abot their private business,because Govt hav said no work no pay dey are protesting,its true there was an agreemnt dat d Govt sld hav kept to but dis so-called union is bin at home for almst 4months now,a full semester and they claim to have d interest of us d students !Asuu is fighting for their pockets cus all d strike they go to once anytin is givn to them they share it n lay low for d main tim den wen they feel they are ment to be having bigger share of d national cake they wil hid under d umbrela of fighting for d future of d Nigeria universities n d youth,u are all fooling urslfs n not d citizens,no1 has sympaty for u people anymore,let us all be at home.And for state universities that really had no firm reason to be on strike,I wish various states Govt sld deal wit dem,,we have better brain jobless youths in d country that run tutorial classes n teach better dan silly lecturers that wil only com to class once a semester to sale their copied books,all they care about is travelling n struggling to become a professor and not teaching,Asuu sld also check their members cus a lot of them are not working,u wil write an exam and ur fellow student wil mark ur script in a university!...The Govt is not better but y not kep doing ur best to better d so-called future u are fighting for rather than having urslfs politicised,during the time of this lecturers dos that taught them had d basic interest of impacting knowledge but now d reverse is d case.soon Asuu wil becom a political party in Nigeria..
ReplyDeleteU hav said it all,political party of ASUU we are watching oo
ReplyDeleteIf they are tired of the strike, they should collectively make the demonstration together, and in Abuja!
ReplyDeleteBut RAPHAEL Lacks home training. So people should not blamehim that much.
@raphael U know what, I dont blame you. Thank God people have told you what your problems are- And problem known is half solved so try to solve the remaining part of your problems
ReplyDelete@raphael U know what, I dont blame you. Thank God people have told you what your problems are- And problem known is half solved so try to solve the remaining part of your problems
ReplyDelete