LASU shut as students protest exclusion from exams

 

Authorities of the Lagos State University, Ojo on Thursday shut the institution following a violent students’ demonstration.

This came as the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. John Obafunwa, escaped the students’ wrath by a whisker.

 

Obafunwa was reportedly spirited away from the university in a police uniform to avoid the molestation of the protesting students.

He was allegedly “smuggled out” by the police in an Armoured Personnel Carrier.

However, the rampaging students smashed his Toyota Corrola official vehicle as well as that of his personal assistant. They also destroyed some property in the administrative block of the university.

To quell the crisis, the police, who stormed the campus with over 20 patrol vans and two APCs, fired teargas canisters at students, a development that also left many of them injured.

Many of the injured students, especially the female, later received treatment at the emergency unit of the university’s medical centre.

One of our correspondents learnt that two of the students, who are in critical condition, have been transferred to the Ikeja General Hospital.

 

One of the injured students, simply identified as Adijat, said the police fired teargas canisters at them.

But the Area E Commander, in charge of the Ojo, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Dan Okoro, denied that his men teargassed the students.

The students, he said, sustained injuries while trying to break the windows to the VC’s office and windscreen of some cars.

The demonstration, which started on Wednesday evening, escalated on Thurday morning with students protesting at the university gate with placards.

The students, who later regrouped, marched to the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, and caused heavy traffic on the busy highway for so many hours.

Their action also disrupted the university’s second semester examination for 2013/2014, which would have started on Thursday (yesterday).

The protesting students marched to the examination halls and chased away their colleagues already seated for the examinations.

The students were protesting against the exclusion of some of their colleagues from writing the semester examination.

Meanwhile, the university authorities, in a statement on Thursday announced the indefinite closure of the institution.

The statement reads, “In the view of the violent protest by some affected students of LASU over the closure of the university portal for registration of courses for the rain semester 2012/2013 examination, the university management has decided to shut down the university indefinitely.

“Also, examinations have been put off till further notice. With this decision, students of the university are expected to vacate the university premises until further notice.”

In a related development, the Lagos State House of Assembly on Thursday summoned the Special Adviser on Education, Mr. Fatai Olukoga, the Governing Council, management staff of the university and the students’ union leadership to appear before the House on Friday (today).

The Chairman, Committee on Education, Science and Technology, Wahab Alawiye-King, brought the protest to the notice of the House at plenary under matters of urgent public importance.

Alawiye-King while briefing the House, appealed to the school authorities to reopen the portal for two days to enable the students to register and sit for the examination to halt the current crisis.

Before the summons, the lawmakers at the plenary had disagreed on the issues, resulting in their Speaker, Adeyemi Ikjuforiji, calling for a short-adjournment to enable them to resolve the issue at a parliamentary session.

Meanwhile, the Education Rights Campaign, has called for the immediate withdrawal of the police from the university and the establishment of a democratic process to hold discussions with the aggrieved students and the university’s union body.