The Nigerian Police men stormed University of Lagos yesterday with sporadic gunshots and throwing of tear gas around the school.
The Police used tear gas to try to disperse a crowd of several hundred university students angry at the president’s decision to change the name of their school, and therefore staging a peaceful protest.
It can be recalled that after the first 2 days of peaceful protest had been carried out successfully in parts of Lagos state but it was suspended yesterday out of respect for their VC who was buried yesterday.
The Day 3 protest began peacefully on Friday at the University of Lagos until the Police fired tear gas and gun shots and students responded with a barrage of thrown stones.
Four students sustained injuries, however no death as reported.
One of the injured students, Miss Funmi Ayodele, 22, of the English Department, fainted after a policeman sprayed teargas in her face.
She was immediately rushed to the university medical centre, where she was revived and is currently receiving medical treatment.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, Tunde Sobulo, said it was not the intention of the police to fire teargas at the students.
He said, “The Senate of UNILAG had ordered us in writing to stay at the university gate so that the protest would not go out of hand. They said we should not let the students protest at the university entrance.
“We’ve been here since Tuesday. But today, the students decided to take it to the extreme. They blocked the Herbert Macaulay Way. We had to go there to disperse them.
“These same students came back to the university and started throwing stones at some of our policemen, who were at the entrance of the university. We had to fire teargas to disperse them.”
He advised the students to remain calm and let those in authority handle the crisis surrounding the renaming of the institution.
One of the leaders of the protest, Chinedu Egwunye, said the policemen were the first to start the fight.
He said, “They started firing teargas at us. We did not do anything to them. Since morning, we have been protesting calmly at the entrance of the university.”
Another student, Gbemileke Ayodeji, said that the duration of the protest was infinite and that it was not going to end anytime soon.
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What are this student still want in school when Federal Govt has announced the closure of the school for two week. i will advice parent and guardians to call their wards to order before they will begin to announce number of student that died because of the protest
ReplyDeleteUni-lag students, who's the owner of the school? I guess- FG. If my guess is correct then the same govt. has the right to change the name to whatever it deem fit. Except u r saying that u went to that school becos of the mere nomenclature & not what u feel the sch. can offer u. If nothing has changed except the name then u should be thanking the FG or do u what to start funding the univ? Remember BPE?
ReplyDeleteThank u jare
DeleteOH!!! so students now r going 2 UNI-LAG just bcos of d name nt even really what d school will offer them in as education......9ja mentality!!! ok keep on fighting 4 UNI-LAG till u lose ur lives mumu people
ReplyDelete