NEWS
Police Arrest 20 MAPOLY Students As Protest Turns Violent
The mass protest by students of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State, entered day two with the students occupying the busy Panseke area and made born fire.
Dozens of them were arrested by policemen.
The students were protesting non – commencement of the semester examinations following the crisis between the lecturers of the polytechnic and the state government over its conversion to Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology and establishment of Ogun State Polytechnic, Ipokia.
The grouse of the lecturers is that the development left them in a state of quandary whether they are still lecturers of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic which technically is in abeyance or the new one in Ipokia but yet to take off.
The students, 20 of them and whose names are yet to be confirmed, were arrested by men of the Ogun State Police Command for alleged arson and public disturbance.
The protest which began on Monday and christened “Black Week in Ogun,” turned violent as
a police officer identified as Samuel Daniel, was injured in the head on the first day of the protest.
The Police Spokesman, ASP Abimbola Oyeyemi told reporters on Tuesday that the hitherto peaceful protest had turned violence, saying some government properties were torched.
Oyeyemi said the police used “minimum force” to disperse the protesting and subsequently arrested 20, who he said, would soon be arraigned in court.
“The so-called peaceful protest has turned violent and they became riotors. They were disturbing public peace, attacking innocent citizens and passers-by.
“We used minimum force to disperse them. We arrested 20 students and they will soon be arraigned before the court of competent jurisdiction,” Oyeyemi said.
