There was a team of security officials, including men of the Nigeria Police Force, at the main gate of the University of Lagos, Akoka, following a planned protest by a group of students over the lingering strike action of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
Student groups had earlier declared mass protests across the country for Tuesday. The locations announced in some of the fliers obtained by our correspondent were, the University of Ibadan main gate, UNILAG main gate, and in some places in Edo State.
As of this morning, a tight security presence was sighted at the main gate of UNILAG. Pictures also showed that some students had gathered at the main gate of UI, under the aegis of “Fund Education Coalition”, with their banner bearing captions like “we say no to commercialisation of education”, “every one of us must rise to defend education”, “we stand with ASUU revitalisation demand”.
The strike action of the lecturers which is entering its fourth month has left public universities shut since its inception following the lecture’s demands, which the Federal Government had, allegedly, not met.
One of the students at the scene, identified simply as Tolu, confirmed the development.
One of the students at the UI convergence point for the protest, who made comments to our correspondent, Solomon Emiola, said, “we are converging now”.
ASUU had accused the government of poor commitment to the payment of academic earned allowance; the continued use of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System and refusal to adopt the Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution, among others.