Police, Parents, NASU Members In Free For All As Pupils Are Locked Out

The long-running strike of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities ( NASU ) got messier on Thursday morning as police officials, parents, members of the union and school teachers brawled over closure of school gates.

Campus Life reports that on early hours of Thursday morning, the gates of International School and Staff School respectively at the University of Lagos ( UNILAG ) were under key and locks leaving pupils, parents and care givers stranded.

Police vans from Sabo Police Division, Yabo were mounted at different locations on campus and specifically at the schools frontage.

Pupils in their hundreds were seen lurking around the school fences while some of the pupils at ISL took to shooting match.

At Staff School, the atmosphere was completely different as armed policemen, parents wrangled with members of NASU, who insisted that the gates must under locks and keys.

Apparently aggrieved parents expressed grief at the action while they profusely bicker with the school teachers at the gate.

While some of the parents regretted that the strike has taken tolls on the academics of their wards, others said the NASU members couldn’t have locked out pupils if their children were enrolled in the school.

A parent at staff school, who was seen ranting said, “This is completely wrong and embarrassing. It is not in anyway rational to lock these young children out of school because of anything whatsoever. At the end of the day, the children who don’t know anything about the strike will be the ones to suffer most.”

She added that the term has very few more weeks to end while there are lots to cover for the pupils.

A male parent at ISL regretted that the timing of the strike was wrong because secondary school are meant to be prepared for West African Senior Certificate Examinations.

He said NASU engaged in their demonstration but, it shouldn’t be at the detriment of school children.

It will be recalled that UNILAG chapter staged a protest on campus few week ago to further press for their demands.

Meanwhile, NASU on Wednesday staged another protest shortly after they distrupted the power and water supply across the university campus.