Nigeria Strike: 100 Students Brutalised, Arrested By Police During Protest, says JAF

The Joint Action Front has lamented that Police brutalised and arrested no fewer than 100 comprising of students, activists and journalists during a protest against the ongoing strike embarked upon by the polytechnic and colleges of education lecturers. It said the protest had thousands of students from Yaba College of Technology; Federal Polytechnics’ students from Ede, Ilaro, Offa, and Federal Colleges of Education from Akoka-Lagos and other states across the country when the incident happened on Wednesday. It said the protest was to lobby the government to implement agreements reached with ASUP and COEASU in order to ensure the return to academic normalcy for the Polytechnics and Colleges of Education students.
The statement read: “JAF whose members were part of the MASS PROTEST organized today May 28 by the Concerned Students against Education Commercialisation (COSATEC) wishes to strongly condemn the trigger happy armed police REPRESSION of the peaceful protest, culminating in the arrest and brutality of over 100 students, activists, and journalists. “The peaceful procession of students and activists under the leadership of the National Coordinator and National Secretary of COSATEC.
The peaceful protest started with a procession from the gate of YABATECH at about 10am and marched peacefully through the Murtala Mohammed Way Ebute Metta, enroute to erect Barricade at the entrance of the Third Mainland Bridge by Adekunle junction. “It was at this point that the Police descended heavily on the peaceful protest with sporadic shooting of teargas, live ammunition and beating of harmless students, activists and journalists with gun butts. Some of the buses that carried students during the procession were not spared as their windscreen were shattered.
Even the symbolic Coffin and Cow inscribed with “Death to Education in Nigeria” were targets of police destruction. “Worst of all was the brutalization of Mr. Segun Akinpelu, a renowned reporter with the Sahara Reporters whose was mercilessly brutalized and his camera and other recording gadgets were completely destroyed into pieces. To cap it all, over 100 students, journalists and activists that included Comrade Akanni Iromini of Awake Nigeria and Mr. Akinpelu were arrested and bundled into a Black Maria.