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DEMANDS
IMMEDIATE & UNCONDITIONAL IMPLEMENTATION OF COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS REACHED
WITH ASUP & COEASU!!
1.
The Joint Action Front (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.
2.
The peaceful procession of students and activists under the
leadership of the National Coordinator and National Secretary of COSATEC –
Comrades Usman Oloyede and Dada Idris drew 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, kicked off with remarks by the leadership of COSATEC and the Secretary
of JAF – Comrade Abiodun Aremu; demanding that the FG should IMPLEMENT
agreements reached with ASUP and COEASU in order to ensure the return to
academic normalcy for the Polytechnics and Colleges of Education students.
3.
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.
4.
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.
5.
While in the Black Maria, the following phone conversations
were exchanged with the Secretary of JAF by Comrade Akanni and Mr. Segun:
·
From Akanni: “Police supplied cold water sachets to
cool down the heat in the Black Maria stationed at the entrance of Third
Mainland Bridge at Adekunle .”
·
From Segun: “I have been bruised and arrested along with
the protesting students by policemen. My camera broken and all my gadgets taken
away. We are still in Black Maria at the Adekunle junction”.
6.
JAF commends the RESISTANCE by the students and other civil
society activists in the protests, which forced the Police authority to
eventually “FREE” the arrested and detained students and activists from the
suffocating Black Maria, after 3 hours, and were driven to the back street of
YABATECH to disembark at about 3.30pm.
7.
JAF recalls that the Strikes by academic staffs in the
polytechnics and colleges for education across the country became necessary
because the Federal and State Governments FAILED to IMPLEMENT agreements they
freely entered into and signed with the ASUP in 2009 and the COEASU) in 2010;
with the implication of ASUP and SSANIP’s strike lasting from April to July 2013 when it was
suspended and resumed since October 2013; while that of COEASU started in December 2013.
8.
JAF notes that the basic demands of ASUP and SSANIP as
contained in the 2009 Agreements signed with the Government(s) have been: on
the need for a National Polytechnic Commission that will regulate education
standards in the polytechnics, Non-Commencement of the renegotiation of the
FGN/ASUP Agreements as contained in the signed 2009 Agreement and Failure by the FG to
release the White Paper on the Visitations to the Polytechnics.
9.
JAF insists that the Resistance Should Continue and urges
Nigerians to support the protest actions by the students and the ongoing strike
actions by ASUP, SSANIP, and COEASU until
the Federal Government and State Governments concerned with the management of
the various tertiary institutions IMPLEMENT without further delay the
Agreements reached with the various unions.
FORWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER!
Dr. Oladipo
Fashina Comrade Abiodun Aremu
JAF Chairperson
JAF Secretary
