ASUU strike: Police stop Ebonyi varsity teachers protest
Dikko, yesterday, prevented members of the Academic Staff
Union of Universities, ASUU, Ebonyi State University, EBSU,
Abakaliki chapter from peacefully protesting against Federal
government's inability to address critical issues surrounding
the education sector in the country.
DSS
Apart from the armed 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 policemen who were armed with AK 47 rifles,
cannisters of tear gas among others, closed the gate leading
to the College of Agricultural Science, CAS, Campus of the
university, thereby obstructing members of the union from
matching through the streets of Abakaliki, the state capital.
Vanguard gathered that the policemen were also drafted to
both Ishieke and Presco campuses of the university under
the guise that the rally might be hijacked by hoodlums in the
state.
Placards
The EBSU-ASUU members who walked round the university
campus 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,'' and
''Say no to Beggarcracy" among others as they chanted
solidarity songs.
This was even as the anti-riot policemen apparently,
embarked on stop-and-search at the gate of the campus as
they tried to confiscate all the placards and flyers from the
protesters.
Prof Ndubuisi speaks
Addressing newsmen at the Campus Gate, the Chairman of
the union in EBSU, Prof. Ndubuisi Idenyi accused the Federal
Government of playing politics with the future of Nigerians
by
not fulfilling the agreement it reached with ASUU in 2009.
Idenyi who stressed that the union would not relent in its
effort to ensure that the education sector was fully funded
and condition of service of lecturers improved upon by the
government added that no amount of intimidation from any
quarter would deter them from pursuing their objectives.
Peoples right
"In a democratic setting, people should have their right of
association and movements; I think it is wrong for the
Nigeria Police to restrict our movements. It is even more
pathetic that we were locked inside our campus as we were
not allowed to move out of the gate.
''I asked whether our gate was locked by our university
security personnel and the information we got was that it
was the police that ordered their men to lock it.
"They should be more civil-friendly because the issues we
are talking about borders on education and they have their
children in our schools while some of them are our
students."
Source:vanguard
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