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Tuition hike protest: Police take over UNILAG gate, arrest NANS leaders

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2 years ago

Security operatives cordoned off UNILAG main gate over students protest against hike in tuition fees in tertiary schools, on Wednesday

The anti-riot policemen in Lagos command and other security agents in early hours of Wednesday, arrested some leaders of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) who were protesting the recent hike in tuition fees by the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Akoka and some other federal government-owned universities.

The security operatives have also taken over the university’s main gate preventing students and every other person from entering the campus.

Even the newly admitted students who are currently doing screening and their parents were turned back at the gate by the security men, who cordoned off the area at the time of filling in this story.

The students converged as early as 8.00 am in Sabo area of Yaba, carrying placards with different inscriptions and chanting solidarity songs, all against the tuition hike.

It was reported that the policemen fired teargas canisters at them to disperse them but they later regrouped and moved towards the university gate where the policemen arrested some of them, numbering about five.

More than 100 policemen with many of them armed with guns and other security operatives were stationed at the gate at the time of filling the story.

Speaking on behalf of the students, the President-Elect of the Faculty of Education Students Association, UNILAG, Balogun Oladeji Ibrahim, accused the Police Area Commander, whose name he gave as ACP Ayodeji A, of ordering his men to shoot canister at them and also their arrest.

He gave the names of two among the arrested students as Philip Olatinwo and Femi Adeyeye.
He said the students would remain on campus until the arrested colleagues were released.

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