No fewer than 200 policemen stormed the campus of the Ebonyi
State University (EBSU) yesterday to prevent members of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, from staging a peaceful protest
against the Federal government over its inability to address the ongoing
strike by the union. Apart from the policemen, some officials of other security agencies
including the Department of State Services, DSS, were also deployed at
strategic corners in the institution to stop the protest.
The EBSU chapter of ASUU had planned a peaceful protest on the
streets of Abakaliki, the state capital, but they were prevented them
from by policemen who were armed with AK 47 rifles, canisters of tear
gas among others, who shut the gate leading to the College of
Agricultural Science, CAS, Campus of the university, thereby preventing
members of the Union from matching through the streets of Abakaliki and
denying other members of the public and students who had other reasons
for coming to the school entrance into the campus.
The policemen did a stop-and-search at the gate of the campus and
retrieved all the materials and flyers for the protest from both the
academic and non-academics staff .
The policemen who claimed to be acting on directives from
Commissioner of Police, Maigari Dikko, 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. Addressing the union members, the Divisional Police Officer in-charge
of Ekumenyi Police Station, W.A Mustapha, as ASP, 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.” This however did not stop the protest as the EBSU-ASUU members staged
the protest within the campus, singing solidarity songs and carrying
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.
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