Press Statement
The vicious attack by the police on 14 students’ leaders
campaigning against rustication and attacks on the democratic rights of
students of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) on Monday October 10 is
condemnable and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni has a
duty to caution his men from being turned into private thugs of despotic
University Vice Chancellors like the UNILAG VC.
The Police command must also foot the medical bills of the injured
students and return the items allegedly seized from them as well as replace
items the police willfully damaged during the premeditated assault. These items
include phones, laptops, buses and other personal effects of the students and
their union.
We make this call conscious of the fact that 48 hours after the
incident, the Police has continued to justify its actions with lies and
half-truth that will only succeed in portraying members of the police force, a
few of whom are quite professional, as a band of private thugs available for
hire by any despotic University Vice Chancellor with a deep pocket.
Around midday on Monday 10 October 2016, students leaders and
activists under the auspices of the Joint Campus Committee (JCC) of the National
Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) Lagos State axis were on their way from
the Federal High Court Ikoyi where a case challenging the illegal rustication
of leaders of the University of Lagos Students Union (ULSU) came up for hearing
when a band of armed policemen descended on them. They were beaten, brutalized
and dumped in the cell at SCIID Panti where they were detained till 9pm of the
same day.
According to the police spokesperson, SP Dolapo Badmus, in an
online statement, the student leaders were so assaulted because the police got
wind of the information that they were on their way to disrupt ongoing
examinations at the University of Lagos. According to her “some group of students which preliminary
investigations revealed are not students of UNILAG arrived Unilag road by
Cemetery, in four different buses with the intent to invade Unilag campus, in
order to disrupt the on going examination process. The Command’s operatives
from Area C command and Yaba division who got wind of the move prevented them
from advancing”.
Curiously, SP Badmus has not revealed where the police allegedly
“got wind of the move”. Was it a by a tip-off? Did the police ask any of the
student leaders and they confirmed their mission was to protest with a view to
disrupting ongoing examinations at UNILAG? The students’ delegation was led by
the NANS JCC Chairman, Samson Adewale Moses and other officials of the body who
are not unknown to the police. How exactly did the police get the information
and even if this was true, is the best and most professional way to prevent
this from happening by unleashing mayhem on them? It appears that the only
“wind of the move” the police, which had been hired by the University weeks
before now to patrol the University’s gate in anticipation of protest, got is
the fact that buses containing students leaders and activists was on UNILAG
road and from this they drew the conclusion that the mission of the buses’
occupants was to invade the University. Meanwhile, UNILAG road does not lead
only to the University from which it derives its name; it also leads to other
areas of Akoka. Also, the University of Lagos is not the only institution
located in Akoka and Yaba area of Lagos. There are several other institutions
within the same vicinity.
As far as the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) is concerned, while
we do not see disruption of examinations as the best strategy to prosecute
struggle, nevertheless, anybody who feel aggrieved about government or
Universities’ anti-poor policies has a right to protest at any time and any
place he or she deems fit so far he is not breaking any law. Many times,
Nigerians have protested in this country shutting down the entire country and
occupying public places and government buildings. If the Police reasonably feel
that a protest could threaten or disrupt an on-going event like an examination,
they are bound by the duty of their profession to offer the best possible
protection for the event so threatened through professional policing
procedures. Ambushing and beating to stupor students allegedly found on a road
leading to UNILAG is crude policing reminiscent of the era of military
despotism.
The truth however is that the students had no such mission in
mind. They were simply on their way to hold a meeting at one of the higher
institutions in the area in order to review the court proceeding and address
the media on the next steps of the campaign. At the court, the University of
Lagos had succeeded in ambushing the judicial process by not appearing in court
thus forcing the court to adjourn the hearing till 25 October 2016. The
implication is that the rusticated students’ leaders would be unable to
participate in the on-going examinations and consequently lose the entire
academic semester. From the court, the students moved in a convoy with a view
to using the premises of either FCE Akoka or Yaba College of Technology to do a
meeting from which a strategy to continue the campaign would be worked out. It
was while on their way that a detachment of the police attacked them.
Monday’s attack on the students is another testimony of the real
function of the police as an agency of repression instead of an institution for
the maintenance of law and order. This year alone, students have been killed
and injured across the country at protests as police fire indiscriminately in
defense of the University authorities against students’ peaceful protests to
challenge bad policies. The recent shooting and killing of protesting workers
in Nassarawa state by the police and that of the University of Port Harcourt
(UNIPORT) are recent examples that come to mind.
By their recent actions which are biased towards the University
management, we have no doubt that the Police in Lagos have been converted to
the private thugs of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) in
his agenda to keep UNILAG students enslaved. But this will not douse the fire
of resistance and struggle. In the coming days, the ERC will take the step of
petitioning the appropriate authorities until this matter is treated with the
urgency and seriousness it deserves.
Hassan Taiwo Soweto Michael Ogundele
National Coordinator (07033697259) National Secretary
No comments:
Post a Comment