Emmanuel Thomas
Nigeria, April 8, 2016 – Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Professor Rahman Ade-Bello is angry with the Student Union Government for protesting rot in the ivory tower.
We gathered that things are so bad in the school that there is no drinking water, forcing students into buying pure water N10 on campus. Besides, the taps are dry and in the process making it impossible for students to have decent showers. Just few months ago, students of the school also protested about bed bugs afflicting them in their living room.
In addition, we gathered that sanitary condition on campus is nothing to write home about. We were informed that the condition is so poor that female students now come down with toilet infections every now and then. Besides, we gathered that the state of power supply is poor since the whole UNILAG community is left with just two generating set.
Besides, we were reliably informed that at examination period, only one medical doctor is placed on duty to care for the whole population of students on campus. These are the conditions we gathered that forced the students to troop out for peaceful protest to register their grievances before the school authority.
But what started as a peaceful protest became violent when the school authority led by its Chief Security Officer along with a number of policemen stormed the gate with Amoured Personnel Carrier(APC), pulling it down and in the process injuring one of the security personnel.
What followed was the arrest of President SUG, Mohammed Olaniyan, and the Public Relations Officer, Jumai Fagbui. T who were whisked away by riot policemen and later invited by the management to ensure students comply with the school directive to vacate campus.
Speaking to www.starconnectmedia.com, SUG Speaker, Hon. Adeyanju Olanipekun said the protest has nothing to do with fuel scarcity neither has it anything to do with the state of poor power supply in the country, since they are all national issues.
He said the students only embarked on peaceful protest to register their concern about the deteriorating state of student welfare on campus.
He said he was surprised that students were harassed and intimidated for staging a peaceful protest. He said that though those arrested have been released, they were harassed, brutalized and intimidated. He said the PRO suffered bruises in the process and that the policemen collected their money, telephone handsets belonging to them in addition to the SUG bus which was seized by the policemen.
He said that all the items collected from the student union officials were never returned to them.
