UNIUYO CRISIS: NO TO KILLING OF PROTESTING STUDENTS

 * Release All Arrested Students
* Meet All Students Demands and Reopen the University Now
* For an Independent Probe Panel including Elected Representatives of Students and Staff Unions. 

Press Statement

The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) demands the immediate reopening of the University of Uyo (UNIUYO) and the meeting of all demands of students. Engineering students of the University of Uyo embarked on protest on Wednesday June 12 2013 against the introduction of extortionate fees, inadequate classrooms for lectures and a 100% hike in the fare of campus shuttle from N100 to N200. 

The ERC condemn the brutal police attack on protesting UNIUYO students and the killing of Kingsley, a 200 level Kingsley student of the University. We place the responsibility for the killing on the shoulders of the UNIUYO management whose criminal, extortionate and anti-poor policies are the cause of the crisis. 

Actually the UNIUYO management would not only have to take responsibility for the killing of Geofrey, they would also have to take responsibility for the death of four NANS (National Association of Nigerian Students) officials including the NANS Senate President Donald Onukaogu who died in a fatal auto accident while hurrying to the University to intervene in the crisis. 

According to the Police, 45 students were arrested and are being detained. We demand the immediate and unconditional release of all arrested students. We also demand adequate compensation to the family of Kingsley killed by the police

We also call for the constitution of a democratic and independent probe panel including the elected representatives of students and staff unions to investigate the immediate and remote causes of the June 12 student protest, establish the culpability of the police in the killing of at least one protester, Kingsley, a 200 level Geology student, assess the alleged damage done to University property and also establish the roles played by the Vice Chancellor and other members of the University management. 

The protest which started peacefully however turned violent after armed police shot live bullets and in the process killed at least one protester, Kingsley, a 200 level Geology student. In the process, some University properties were reportedly vandalised by some enraged crowd of students. While we in the ERC do not support violence as a means of struggle, in this particular case the violence that occurred was clearly provoked by the police who instead of treating students like human being shot at them like some wild beast. Moreover, this is not the first time the police have opened fire with live ammunition on unarmed protesting students. This year alone, nearly 10 students have been killed in similar circumstances. For instance on the 25th of February 2013, four students of Nasarawa State University were shot dead by police while protesting against power outage and inadequate water supply. 

We call on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), education workers' unions and civil society organisations not to be silent but to publicly condemn the police brutalisation and killing of students. It is worrisome that while the leadership of the NLC and TUC finds time to issue public statements on such irrelevant issues as Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) crisis, it does not remember to publicly stand for the right of students - the future workers of tomorrow! 

We call on the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to call and mobilise for a one-day national action involving lecture boycotts and mass demonstrations to protest against the increasing police brutality against students, to demand adequate punishment for police officers responsible for the killing of students and also to call for 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. Such a day of action will also provide the opportunity to boldly reject governments’ anti-poor capitalist education policies of fee hike and commercialisation which the generality of students across campuses nationwide are facing presently.

Hassan Taiwo Soweto
National Coordinator

DEATH OF NANS SENATE PRESIDENT AND FOUR OTHERS IN AUTO CRASH

ERC Condoles with NANS and Students

The death of the Senate President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) Donald Onukaogu Sunday, Dimeji Azeez (a.k.a Fagbocious) and three others is indeed shocking. Reportedly, they died in an auto crash while on their way to the University of Uyo to intervene in the on-going crisis in the University which has also cost the live of at least one student during protest against anti-poor policies of the University administration. Their bus collided with a lorry. Seven others who were critically injured are receiving treatment at a hospital.

We condole with the families of the deceased, NANS leadership and entire Nigerian students. We hold the Management of the University of Uyo responsible for their death. If not for the anti-poor policies of the UNIUYO administration and the killing of protesting students, they would not have embarked on that ill-fated journey. It is only fitting for UNIUYO management to now immediately reverse all its criminal anti-student policies that has caused not only the death of one of its students, Kingsley a 200 level Geology student,  but also five leaders of NANS.

The recurrent news of killings of students has become worrisome. This year alone, nearly10 students have been either killed or injured in one institution after the other in extra-judicial circumstances. All of these deaths have occurred either as a result of police shooting at protesting students or through other forms of extra-judicial killings. We will recall the public's mind to just some of them.

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 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, 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 shot dead by a police man 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. Reportedly 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 shot dead by CSP Carol Afegbai, the Divisional Police Officer of Ogida division.

The latest police killing occurred on Wednesday June 12 2013, and was the reason the NANS Senate president and his entourage met their own death. kingsley, a 200 level Geology student of the University of Uyo (UNIUYO) was shot dead by police during protest against inadequate lecture spaces, extortionate fees and hike in the fare of the University campus shuttle. About 45 students have also been arrested.

It is unfortunate that NANS response to some of these mishaps has mostly been weak and uncoordinated thus allowing the police and government to get away with these crimes. Not in one of the aforementioned killings has justice been done or any positive results heard from series of investigations promised by the government.

Yet the cause of most of these mindless death of students is government anti-poor education policies which it wants to ram down our throat whether we like it or not. It is these same anti-poor education policies, together with bad roads, that constitute the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate death of Donald Onukaogu Sunday, Dimeji Azeez and three others in an auto crash.

There is no better way to honour the departed than for their death to be made an occasion to launch a campaign against police killing of students, the bad roads that is claiming lives daily as well as anti-poor education policies that are denying the youths a future. Instead of the usual verbose threats and media vituperations often issued by NANS anytime disasters like this occur, this unfortunate incident has to be a clarion call on NANS leadership to sit up.

We therefore call on the NANS leadership to immediately declare a day of action to honour the departed. Such a day of action which should involve lecture boycott and mass protest on all campuses nationwide should be used to protest against government anti-poor education policies, police brutality and extra judicial killing of students.

Hassan Taiwo Soweto                                                                                  

National Coordinator                                                          

Polytechnic Strike: SSANIP Members Hold Protest March in Lagos

For More Mass Actions Uniting SSANIP, ASUP and NAPS in Struggle

By Lateef Adams

Members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP) in the Southwest Zone on Tuesday June 4 converged at the Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), Lagos, for a protest rally and a news conference to press home their demands and call on the Federal government to implement the agreement, known as CONTISS-15, it reached with the union in 2009. 

SSANIP together with ASUP (Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics) has been on strike since April 17 over the failure of the government to meet their demands which also include issues such as improved pay, working conditions, discrimination against Polytechnic graduates, establishment of special commission to regulate polytechnic education, and funding of polytechnic education. 

The rally, which was led by the Peter Jegede, the National Secretary of the Union and Adebanjo Ogunsipe, the Southwest Coordinator, drew about 300 participants from a good number of polytechnics in the southwest Nigeria, though dominated by the members from Yabatech. 

The members of DSM through the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) actively participated at the rally to show solidarity to the striking workers. Their strike action has now entered the 7th week without government showing concern about the demand of the workers and the plight of students who have been forced to stay at home. 

The ERC has been intervening in the strike since its inception. On May 21, the ERC participated actively in a solidarity protest called by the National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) in Abuja. On May 29 which is Nigeria's annual "Democracy Day", a protest called by the ERC in Minna Niger State, North-central Nigeria was foiled by heavy militarization of the city. In Lagos, ERC's active intervention in the strike in form of independent leafleting around Polytechnic campuses is beginning to resonate with the striking workers as well as students - a few of whom are already showing interest in joining us.

 

ERC members join the protest

 The June 4 protest started from the main campus (YABATECH) to the federal civil service club Yaba where the press conference was held. The demonstration did not end there as it continued shortly after the press briefing to the popular Herbert Macaulay way.

At the press conference, the leadership of the union raised the issues in contention with government and called for the solidarity from the general masses, students and parents. They highlighted the poor conditions of polytechnics and called for improvement in the funding of the polytechnic education.

At the Press Conference

 Speaking for the ERC and DSM, Comrade Chinedu Bosah praised the effort of the striking workers for boldly struggling against the collapse of polytechnic education in Nigeria. While commenting on the demands of SSANIP, he mentioned that the establishment of NPC will not change anything if the same ruling class and/or their appointees are allowed to constitute the body. He therefore urged the union to demand for the NPC to be democratically constituted by elected representatives of unions in polytechnics. 

Chinedu Bosah giving ERC and DSM solidarity message

 He also urged SSANIP to call for the support of other unions, the wider labour movement like the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and students to join their struggle in order to give more weight and compel the government to meet its demands.