No
fewer than 30 policemen including Mobile officers with an Amoured Personnel
Carrier, APC, barricaded the main gate leading to the university,
yesterday.
The
ASUU members who had planned to move to the streets with their placards were
ambushed and stopped from moving to the streets of Akure metropolis.
Some
of the lacards displayed by the protesting lecturers had the following
inscriptions, ‘Transformation witout education is zero,’ ‘ASUU says no to
destruction of Public Universities.”
Others
include: ‘Agreement is agreement, Federal Government do the right thing,’
‘ASUU is the real Nigeria Patriots,’ ‘Okonjo is Wahala,’ ‘Jonathan Stop
Playing Politics with Education,’ amongst others.
Addressing
newsmen, the FUTA chapter chairman, Dr. Alex Odiyi expressed disgust
about the disruption by police despite a letter to the police command since
October 17.
Dr.
Odiyi said in a copy of the letter made available to newsmen in Akure that the
rally was meant to enlighten the citizenry on the motive for the strike.
The
rally, according to the letter signed by the chairman and the secretary, Dr. K.
S. Adegbie was to begin from the university gate to the Akure Central
Market.
Also
speaking, the Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Ilorin Zone, Dr. Ayun Adeleke said
that the strike action was as a result of government’s refusal to honour a 2009
agreement.
Adeleke
said that it was agreed then that federal universities required N1.5 trillion
to be spread over three years (2009-2011) to address the rot and decay in the
system.
Addressing
the ASUU members, a police officer who led the team that stopped the protest,
Adekunle Omisakin appealed to them to remain within their campus to avoid
miscreants from hijacking the action to loot and cause harm.
On
the failure to give permission, the chairman of the Adekunle Ajasin University
chapter Dr Busuyi Mekusi alleged that police in the town have threatened to
deal with them ruthlessly if they hold the rally.
Source: Vanguard
No comments:
Post a Comment