Thursday 14 March 2013

Ongoing Strike of Osun State Tertiary Institutions Lecturers



  Ilesha Students Solidarity Protest Dispersed by Armed Police

By Jamal
DSM, OSCE Ilesha

On Tuesday 12 March, 2013, students of the Osun State College of Education (OSCE) Ilesha organized themselves at the school Motion Ground to embark on a peaceful protest to support the strike action embarked on by the CASUOSTI which is the umbrella body of all the academic staff unions in Osun state tertiary institutions. The protest started all the way from the campus with the hope of heading to the Round-about area at central town to meet with journalists who had gathered there and clamour for Aregbesola/ACN government to meet the demands of the striking lecturers so that academic activity can resume.

On getting to AYESO police station, we were stopped by the police led by the Area commander. After a short conversation held with the police officers, they tried to terminate the protests at that point but students insisted on marching to the terminal point of the protest which was the Round-about area.

In response, the Area commander told his boys in collaboration with the AYESO prison warders to shoot sporadically and release tear-gas canisters to scare away the students. In the process, about 5 students were hit by tear gas and were injured. Also many passersby got affected by the noxious gas.

Unable to move forward again, students discussed and agreed to select delegates to visit the radio stations like Unique fm and Gold fm in the state to make a report of the undemocratic actions taken by the AYESO police unit command as well as to call on the government to immediately meet the striking lecturers demands .
About 10 members of DSM branch participated in the solidarity protest. We sold 6 copies of the new edition (March/April) of Socialist Democracy. A special DSM statement supporting the strike and arguing why the government can meet the demands of the lecturers was also circulated to students and some of the striking lecturers.

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