In a press statement, the ERC, under the leadership of Mr.
Hassan Soweto, accused State Governor Rauf Aregbesola of
masterminding the police assault on students engaged in a
peaceful demonstration, pointing out that the attack was
carried out by the praetorian guards of the governor only a
few meters to his office.
The assault took place on September 12, when the students
held the demonstration to draw attention to the continued
closure of tertiary institutions in the State, and to seek
audience with the governor over the issue. The closures,
which followed lecturers’ industrial action from unresolved
demands, have lasted over four months.
As the students marched peacefully in support of their
lecturers’ demands under the aegis of the Joint Campus
Committee of NANS, a team of fierce policemen swooped on
them as they approached the Governor’s office, using tear
gas and guns.
The demonstrating students scampered in various directions
across the highway and some said they accidentally found
themselves in gutters during the attack. Four of the students
received various degrees of injuries, while some of their
colleagues were arrested. A Students’ Union bus following
them was also seized.
The pro-students activist group also cited other recent cases of arrests and brutality against persons by State Security agents on the orders of Governor Aregbesola, including an attack on Barrister Alfred Adegoke, the State coordinator of the Democratic Socialist Movement, in his office, by men of the Department of State Security. Mr. Adegoke was reportedly brutalized and detained for hours for allegedly
supporting State workers and pensioners over non-payment
of their salaries.
“Governor Aregbesola’s cup of impunity has run over”, ERC declared in the statement, adding that the strike of the lecturers would not have been this prolonged had the
Governor being prepared to dialogue with them in good faith.
