No fewer than 200 policemen stormed the campus
of the Ebonyi State University (EBSU) yesterday to
prevent members of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities, ASUU, from staging a peaceful protest
against the Federal government over its inability to
address the ongoing strike by the union.

Apart from the policemen, some officials of other
security agencies including the Department of State
Services, DSS, were also deployed at strategic
corners in the institution to stop the protest.
The EBSU chapter of ASUU had planned a peaceful
protest on the streets of Abakaliki, the state capital,
but they were prevented them from by policemen
who were armed with AK 47 rifles, canisters of tear
gas among others, who shut the gate leading to the
College of Agricultural Science, CAS, Campus of the
university, thereby preventing members of the Union
from matching through the streets of Abakaliki and
denying other members of the public and students
who had other reasons for coming to the school
entrance into the campus.
The policemen did a stop-and-search at the gate of
the campus and retrieved all the materials and flyers
for the protest from both the academic and non-
academics staff .
The policemen who claimed to be acting on
directives from Commissioner of Police, Maigari
Dikko, were also drafted to the other three
campuses of the institution: the permanent site
campus at Ezzamgbo and those at Ishieke and
Presco. They claimed to have stopped the
procession from going out of the campus to prevent
hoodlums from hijacking the protest.
Addressing the union members, the Divisional
Police Officer in-charge of Ekumenyi Police Station,
W.A Mustapha, as ASP, said, “I was directed by the
police commissioner to come here and ensure that
you restrict your rally within the school premises.
There are other citizens of this country going about
their normal businesses and we won’t want a
situation where their movement will be restricted.”
This however did not stop the protest as the EBSU-
ASUU members staged the protest within the
campus, singing solidarity songs and carrying
placards with the inscriptions: “FG: Save University
Education”, “FG: Do not kill University education”,
“FG: Agreement is Agreement”, “Poor University
education makes every sector fake”, “Nigeria: “Fight
poor education”, “FG-ASUU Agreement! FG has
reneged, Say no to Beggarcracy,”among others.