The students’ association requested the Adamawa police commissioner to provide them with security cover to prevent hoodlums from hijacking the protest.
The National Association of Nigerian Students (Zone E) has scheduled Friday for the ongoing nationwide ‘Occupy The Airport’ protest over the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
According to a request letter addressed to the Adamawa State Commissioner of Police by the NANS Zone E Coordinator, Alhassan Adam, the protest will take off at the Lamido Aliyu International Airport Gate, Yola by 9 am.
In the letter dated September 20, 2022 and obtained by SaharaReporters, the students’ association requested the Adamawa police commissioner to provide them with security cover to prevent hoodlums from hijacking the protest.
The letter titled ‘Notification for NANS Zonal Protest in Adamawa, in respect of ASUU Strike/Request for Security Cover’ reads, “In line with the directives of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to shut down all the Airport in Nigeria till ASUU call off the strike, Zone E will not be exempted, and we have scheduled our date of protest on Friday 23rd September, 2022.
“Meeting point: Lamido Aliyu International Airport Gate, Yola. Time: 09:00a.m. Venue: Lamido Aliyu International Airport, Yola.
“Sir, we deem it very necessary to write to your office and request for security cover in order to prevent the protest from being hijacked by hoodlums.”
Following the Nigerian government’s failure to meet the demands of the striking university lecturers and the agreements signed with the union in 2009, Nigerian university students who have been at home for seven months because of the strike, last week declared Operation ‘Occupy The Airport’ across the nation to express their grievances.
ASUU embarked on strike on February 14 this year over the government's failure to honour a series of agreements it signed with the union in 2009 and 2013, and failure to meet the union’s demands including improved funding and issues surrounding the payment system.