RELEASE
ITA ASUQUO ESSIEN AND DAVID UKO FROM PRISON CUSTODY
Press Statement
The Education Rights
Campaign (ERC) calls for the dropping of charges against 44 students of the
University of Uyo who were arrested during a mass students' protest against
management transportation policy on June 12, 2013.
While 42 have been
granted bail since last year due to the effort of their lawyers, the two
remaining are still languishing in prison because the state is opposing their
bail. On Wednesday 15 January 2014, they returned to prison in tears as their
bail applications suffered yet another set-back. They will be back in court
again on Thursday 23rd January 2014. They are now spending their 8th month
behind bars while their academic suffer. They are Ita Asuquo Essien and David
Uko of the departments of Petroleum Engineering and Political Science
respectively. We demand their immediate release from prison custody and the
dropping of all charges against them.
The arraignment of the
UNIUYO 44 is being painted by the State as an effort to dissuade brigandage and
vandalism. Meanwhile, it is a political trial meant to criminalize protest and
scare students from ever daring to oppose poor studying conditions and
government anti-poor education policies. Instead of putting students on trial
for fighting for their rights, we insist that the demands of students for
better transportation conditions which led to the protest in the first place
must be addressed. This is the only way to ensure justice and peace in the
University on a sustainable basis.
The June 12, 2013 protest
against bad transportation policy went riotous after it was brutally attacked
by armed police who in the process killed a student named Kingsley Udoette.
While the ERC is stoutly against violence as a method of struggle, we
nevertheless put the blame for the degeneration of the hitherto peaceful
student protest on the provocative actions of the armed police drafted to the
campus on the invitation of the University's Vice Chancellor.
According to reports,
police shot indiscriminately at protesting students leading to the death of
Kingsley Udoette. Seeing the lifeless body of their colleague, the students
hitherto protesting peacefully went riotous and vented their anger on anything
in sight. Now in order to cover their crimes, the police have arrested and
arraigned 44 students of the institution on various trumped up charges ranging
from murder, arson to malicious
destruction. Also in addition to this, when the University which was closed for
several months eventually reopened, students were asked to pay N10,000 damages
fee.
Given the legendary
illegality and excesses of the Nigerian police, it is very well possible that
most or all of those standing trial today may not have participated in the
vandalisation of the University's properties. According to our investigations,
most of those arraigned were arbitrarily arrested not at the scene of the
protest as would be expected, but from their hostel located at Udi street in
Uyo and some along the road. We demand that the Commissioner of Police provides
evidence linking the arraigned students with either the vandalisation which
occurred and/or the state murder of Kingsley Udoette. Anything short of this
will amount to a grave injustice against
the UNIUYO 44.
The injustice being
perpetrated by the University of Uyo management and the Akwa State government
against ordinary students must stop. If justice is to be served, it is the
Commissioner of Police and the University Vice Chancellor that should be
standing trial today for killing Kingsley Udoette. But such is the travesty and
miscarriage of justice that the victims have now become the villains.
The situation in UNIUYO
is not an isolated event. It is part of a concerted effort by the government to
suppress students right to protest and resist their anti-poor education
policies. In many campuses across the country, there are similar cases of
attacks on democratic rights of students including ban of unions and
victimisation of students activists. However students must not be deterred. The
struggle for proper funding of education
must continue until victory.
We call on the Academic
Staff Union of University (ASUU), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and Senior
Staff Association of Nigerian
Universities (SSANU) and all other staff unions at the University of Uyo to
equally condemn the trial of the UNIUYO 44 and call for their freedom. The ERC
will continue in every way we can to give solidarity to the campaign to free
the UNIUYO 44 because "an injury to one is an injury to all".
Hassan
Taiwo Soweto Michael Ogundele
National
Coordinator National Secretary
07033697259 07066249160
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