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.
No comments:
Post a Comment