Call
for Condemnation, Solidarity and Protests
Statement of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC)
So
far this year, nearly 10 students have been shot dead by the police. Most of
the shooting have occurred during students protest. The Education Rights
Campaign (ERC) has publicly condemned this killing including the latest which
occurred at the University of Uyo (UNIUYO) on Wednesday June 12 2013. We are
calling on the student movement, trade union movement, socialist organisations
and civil society in Nigeria and internationally to speak out against the
growing brutal repression of students.
Police
in Nigeria still use heavy-handed methods including shooting of teargas and
live bullets to disperse protests and demonstrations. Civil crowd-control
methods are completely absent in the handbook of the Nigerian police. Despite
over a decade of civil rule, policing in Nigeria still wears the brutal and
bloody face it wore under military despotism. According to a colonial-era law
which, though a court has invalidated, is still being brutally enforced by the
police, protesters are to obtain permission from the police before organising a
protest. As everyone probably knows, this is not just a harmless law but one
carefully planned to make protesting completely impossible.
It
should be stressed however that students are not the only victims of police
brutality and extra-judicial killing. Many youths especially in poor
communities also face on a daily basis police harassment which sometimes
results in unlawful detention and the death of the victims.
The
killings of students by the police are occurring against the background of
decaying public education and the carrying out of more and more cuts in the
education budget. The first casualties of police brutality this year were four students of Nasarawa State University. They were gunned down during a student
protest on February 25 2013 against poor water and light supply. Despite
promises of investigation by government, nothing positive has been heard since
then.
The latest killing occurred on June 12 2013 when anti-riot police invaded the
University of Uyo and shot at students of the University protesting against
extortionate charges and inadequate lecture theatres. In the process, Kingsley
Udoette, a 200 level student of Zoology department of the University died after
being shot in the stomach. 45 students were arrested and are being detained. Tragically, five officials of the National Association of Nigerian Students(NANS) hurrying to the University the next day to mediate also died in a road accident.
In
between February and June, there have been many cases of extra-judicial
killings of students by the police sometimes in circumstances different from
protest. For instance on February 28 2013, Seyi Fasere, a 400 level
student of the Ekiti State University was shot dead by police. He had gone to
his hometown Ilupeju to collect his tuition and on his way back, the bus
conveying him ran into armed robbers at Oye Ekiti. The driver veered off the
road while all occupants disembarked and fled into the bush. Several minutes
after the armed robbers had left, the police came, combed the bush and found
Seyi Fasere hiding like all others. However, the N100,000 he had collected from
his parents for his school fees was found on him and this as far as the Police
were concerned was enough evidence that he was an armed robber. He was taken to
the police station and reportedly shot dead by a policeman notoriously known as"Akobi Esu" (Devil's Firstborn)!
On 27 May 2013, Ahmed Dayo, an ND 1 student in the
Department of Accounting of the Kwara State Polytechnic, was shot inside a cab
by Police men escorting a bullion van belonging to a first generation bank. It
was reported that the armed police escort stopped the taxi and attempted to
shoot its tyre because it was getting too close to the bullion van.
Unfortunately, instead of the bullet hitting the tyre, it hit Dayo in the
vehicle and damaged one of his legs. Likewise on the same 27 May 2013, Ibrahim
Momodu, a student of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) was reportedly shot dead by CSP Carol Afegbai, the Divisional Police Officer of Ogida division.
There
are also other instances of police violent repression of students’ protests
which though did not result in any casualty yet caused serious injury to
students as a result of battery, inhalation of harmful teargas fumes, arrest
and detention in the cell often without charge. On May 20, 2013, several
students of the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) were brutalized by the police
who came to disperse a protest against decision of the University management to
prevent students who had not paid the recently hiked tuition from writing
examinations. 10 of them were arrested and locked up in the cell.
The
best response to this repression is for students to step up the struggle
against anti-poor education policies by calling for national days of action
involving coordinated lecture boycotts and demonstrations nationwide.
Whilst
four Nasarawa State University students were killed by police in February, the
NANS leadership threatened fire and brimstone in the media but calmed down
afterwards without taking sufficient political actions. Then the ERC raised the
call for solidarity protest on all campuses against the killing as the best
response and we indeed organised two such actions at the polytechnic Bida and
to media houses in Lagos. But the NANS refused to take up this call even when
the killings continued on other campuses.
The
police killing and repression are meant to undercut the mood for a fight back
present on campuses. All the problems of education (fee hike, underfunding,
poor facilities, lack of access etc) are still present and in many cases
multiplying. The PDP federal government and the state governments including
those governed by opposition parties are jointly taking education out of the
reach of the poor with astronomical fee hike. Unfortunately challenge to these
ruinous education policies are still fragmented and localised on campuses
because NANS is not playing its role. This is why socialists and activists in
the ERC attach so much importance to the call for a coordinated campaign
starting with a one-day action of students nationwide to protest police
repression and all anti-poor education policies. Such a campaign must also
raise the perspective for an end to capitalism and for a socialist alternative.
We
demand release of all students arrested, meeting of all students demands for
reversal of fee hikes, improvement in learning and living conditions and for
reversal of all anti-poor education policies, an independent probe panel
consisting of elected representatives of students unions, education workers
unions and communities to probe the
killings, adequate punishment for police officers responsible
for the killing of students and also a holistic reform in the Nigerian Police
Force that will include democratic control of the police by communities and the
labour movement and improved pay and trade union rights for police men and
women
The
ERC appeals to the trade unions, student bodies, civil society and socialist
organisations in Nigeria and internationally to publicly protest the brutal
police repression and killings of students by writing protest letters to the
authorities in Nigeria. Protest letters can also be sent through Nigerian
embassies and you can also send text messages or call the authorities in
Nigeria and/or Nigeria embassy to register your displeasure at the brutal
repression.
Send protest letters to the following addresses of
the National Assembly:
repscontact@nass.gov.ng,repinfo@nassnig.org,clerknass@nassng.org,clerksenate@nassng.org,clerkreps@nassng.org
or that of the Nigerian police: E-mails: policemonitor@npf.gov.ng,
doublefrank2000@yahoo.com.
You can also send short text messages to the
following police phone numbers to protest the killings: NPF: 07066228200, IG MD
Abukakar: 08059666666, Police DFPRO CSP Frank Mba: 08038375844. Please copy all
protest letters to nanssecretariat2013@gmail.com, edurightsforall@yahoo.co.uk.
You
can also organise solidarity actions like protest and demonstrations too within
Nigeria and if outside the country, at Nigerian embassies. Education workers
unions like the ASUU, SSANU, NASU and the teachers union (NUT) as well as the
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) particularly have
a duty to speak out strongly against police repression and also to organise
solidarity actions to support students. Such solidarity from within and outside
Nigeria will go a long way in encouraging students not to relent in the
struggle against capitalist neo-liberal attacks on public education even in the
face of repression.
Hassan
Taiwo Soweto
National
Coordinator
Education
Rights Campaign (ERC)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PROTEST LETTER AGAINST POLICE REPRESSION OF STUDENTS
I/we write to condemn the police repression of
students in universities and tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The recurrent
news of killings of students has become worrisome. We are outraged.
This year alone, nearly 10 students have been
either killed in one institution after the other in extra-judicial
circumstances. There are also cases of assault on students, illegal arrest and
detention, use of teargas and live bullets against students protesters by
police under the pretext of maintaining law and order. All of these deaths have
occurred either as a result of police shooting at protesting students or
through other forms of extra-judicial killings.
For instance on 25 February 2013, four students of
Nassarawa State University were killed while protesting against water scarcity
and power outage. About 17 students were arrested while the University was
shut. Two days after on February 28 2013, Seyi Fasere, a 400 level student of
the Ekiti State University was shot dead in extrajudicial circumstances
reportedly by a police man notoriously known as "Akobi Esu" (Devil's
Firstborn).
Similarly on 27 May 2013, Ahmed Dayo, an ND 1 student
in the Department of Accounting of the Kwara State Polytechnic, was shot inside
a cab by Police men escorting a bullion van belonging to a first generation
bank. Likewise on the same 27 May 2013, Ibrahim Momodu, a student of the
University of Benin (UNIBEN) was reportedly shot dead by CSP Carol Afegbai, the
Divisional Police Officer of Ogida division.
The latest police killing occurred on Wednesday
June 12 2013 with the shooting to death of Kingsley Udotte, a 200 level student
of Zoology department of the University of Uyo. 45 of the students were
arrested and are being detained.
The killings represent another low in Nigeria's
dismal record of clampdown on democratic rights. We hold the government and the
police authorities responsible for these killings. Not in one of the
aforementioned killings has justice been done or any positive results heard
from series of investigations promised by the government.
The cause of most of these mindless death of
students is government anti-poor education policies which it wants to ram down
the throats of students. We stand with Nigerian students and shall give support
to their struggle until justice is done in this matter. We condemn the police
repression and shall support students efforts to fight for the following
demands:
(1) Halt to police repression of students. Withdraw
the police and men of the secret services from campuses.
(2) Release all arrested students including 45
UNIUYO students being detained
(3) Setting up of an independent and democratic
probe panel composed by elected representatives of students unions, staff
unions and the university community to investigate the killings.
(4) Adequate
punishment for all police officers responsible for the killings.
(5)Adequate compensation for the families of the
students killed by police.
(6) Meeting of all demands of students for reversal
of fee hikes, improvement in learning environment and hostel conditions and for
provision of modern teaching facilities in all schools and increase in
budgetary allocation to at least 26%
(7) Provision of free and functional education at
all levels by investing a large chunk of Nigeria's vast oil revenues in public
education instead of allowing politicians to loot these monies.
(8) Holistic reform in the Nigerian Police Force
that will include democratic control of the police by communities and labour
movement and improved pay and trade union rights for police men and women
----------------------
Send to:
The Speaker,
House of Representatives
The National Assembly Complex
Federal Republic of Nigeria,
3 Arms Zones
P.M.B 141 Abuja FCT
E-mail: Nigeria.clerkreps@nassng.org,
repscontact@nass.gov.ng
The Senate President,
The National Assembly Complex
Federal Republic of Nigeria,
3 Arms Zones
P.M.B 141 Abuja FCT
E-mail:
repinfo@nassnig.org, clerknass@ng.org, clerksenate@nassng.org
Cc: policemonitor@npf.gov.ng
doublefrank2000@yahoo.com
nanssecretariat2013@gmail.com
edurightsforall@yahoo.co.uk
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