Police stop varsity lecturers’ protest

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.”