Hundreds of aggrieved students of the Lagos State University,
LASU, as well as a coalition of civil society groups led by Joint Action
Front, JAF, Tuesday morning besieged the Lagos State House of Assembly
in protest against the hike in school fees of the institution and other
issues that have hindered smooth academic activities in the school.
The protesters, who stormed the House from the Textile Labour House
on Acme Road, Agidingbi area of the state in western Nigeria, where they
had mobilised, were armed with placards with various anti-government
inscriptions and chanted anti-government songs to press home their
grievances.
According to secretary of JAF, Comrade Abiodun Aremu,
the group is supporting the students protest to save the country from
future decay.
“On behalf of the Joint Action Front, we endorse the
protest for one reason, and the reason is that the right to education
is non-negotiable.
“The crisis in LASU is basically about the hike
in school fees, which makes it impossible for parents that are already
undermined by the decadence in the economy to afford education for their
children.
“No parent should vote for the present administration that is denying their children a right to be liberated,” Aremu said.
In
another petition written on behalf of the #SaveLASU Campaign Movement
by the Education Rights Campaign, ERC, and submitted to Lagos State
House of Assembly, the group demanded the reopening of LASU on 24
February, for all students, reversal of hiked fees and review of the
Assembly’s resolutions on the 23 January crisis that occurred in the
institution.
In the petition made available to newsmen, the group
stated that the new calendar as approved by the university’s Senate
showed how deceitful, vengeful and insensitive the Prof. Obafunwa-led
management was.
“This calendar announced by the university
management on 17 February, 2014 is unfair to a majority of students of
the institution especially those in 100, 200 and 300 levels,” the
petition said.
The deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly was about to address the students and activists at the time of this report.
The
institution’s management had shut down the school on 23 January after
students rioted and destroyed school property and vehicles belonging to
top officials of the school.
The protesters, who had disrupted
the second semester examination over the institution’s closure of its
registration portal, also almost lynched their Vice Chancellor, Prof.
John Obafunwa, as they pelted him with stones and vandalised his car as
he tried to evade the riot by escaping through an alternative route
beside Conoil Filling station close to the school.
But the VC and
other management team, who were summoned to the state House of Assembly
over the crisis, told the lawmakers that less than 2,000 of the about
12,000 students of the institution were yet to register fully for their
courses before the portal was shut.
Prof. Obafunwa had told the
lawmakers, who pleaded for the re-opening of the registration portal,
that he almost lost his life as some of the students, who were masked
and carrying dangerous weapons, went in search of some targeted
officials of the institution.
He said the management decided to
shut the portal so as to adequately prepare the registered students for
the second semester examination, and since only 1,292 students were yet
to register.
But the representatives of the Students’ Union
Government, SUG, told the lawmakers that the entire riot stemmed from
the hike in the institution’s fees from N25,000 to between N193,750 and
N348,750 depending on the course.
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/59605.html
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/59605.html
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