Posted By: Kunle Akinrinade

couple was yesterday injured when soldiers allegedly attacked protesting workers and students of the Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) in Ikorodu.

Mr Adewunmi Olorunfemi, welfare officer of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) suffered a broken wrist; his wife, Lateefat, was horsewhipped.

An ASUP bus was also smashed.

There was heavy traffic on the Sagamu-Ikorodu Road during the melee.

Sources claimed the soldiers were invited by the school to disperse ASUP and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) which on Monday resumed their strike over non-payment of the 87-month accumulated arrears of the consolidated tertiary Institutions salary structure (CONTISS) 15 migration.

The armed soldiers on the prowl… yesterday

The strike was a fallout of the expiration of the 21-day ultimatum to the management to pay.

The workers and students converged on the campus around 6 am, shut down the school and were preparing to move to the palace of the Ayongburen of Ikorodu Oba Kabiru Shotobi, when the the soldiers arrived.

‘’We had gathered here this morning to enforce the total shut down of the school and enforce the strike which began on Monday because the Rector, Mr Samuel Sogunro, has been using the police to prevent the exercise and carry on with academic activities.

‘’We were shocked that soldiers were invited to attack us while we were carrying out a peaceful protest and many of our members have been injured while trying to run to safety,’’ said one of the workers who did not want his name in print.

But the school’s spokesman Mr Lanre Kuye, said the soldiers did not attack the protesters.

He said: ‘’No, it is not true that soldiers were invited to stop them from protesting. The 174 Battalion of the Nigeria Army is very close to the school and because of the deplorable road, our school has become a thoroughfare not only for soldiers but the police as well to bypass the bad road and get into town through our third gate.

‘’It might have been that the soldiers wanted to pass through the school campus in order to avoid the decrepit Sagamu-Ikorodu road, and in the process were forced to reopen the school’s main gate blocked by the protesting union members.”

Kuye said the management had sought the workers’ understanding on its inability to meet their demand became of paucity of fund.

‘’The 87 months arrears run into billions of naira. While our allocation is just N210 million, monthly wage bill is in the region of N250 million, which means the management usually sources for money to make up for the shortfall. Except the state government bails the school out with additional funds, there is no way we can defray the huge arrears clamoured by our workers. Even if the school has the money, which is not true anyway, we still need the state government’s nod to disburse it. We have forwarded their request to the state authorities and we are waiting for necessary approval,’’ he said.

Contacted, the spokesman for Nigerian Army’s 81 Division, Lieutenant Colonel, Olaolu Daudu denied that any civilian was brutalised.

He said the army was called after hoodlums hijacked the protest and blocked the expressway, adding that they only went in to ensure the barricades were removed so that people going about their normal businesses had free flow of traffic.

According to him, soldiers responded to a call from the school’s Chief Security Officer (CSO) and they acted in conjunction with officials of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).

Daudu said: ‘‘It is not true that soldiers brutalised civilians. They did not even enter the school. They only went there to dismantle road blocks and stop hoodlums, who hijacked the protest from inflicting hardship on road users. Those accusing the army of brutalising civilians are just trying to paint the service in bad light. Nothing like that happened.’’

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