However, the school's Public Relations Officer, Otunba Mike Aladenika, denied the allegations made by the students, saying, “Nothing of such happened today.”
Student leaders at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State have accused the state government of hiring hoodlums and former students to disrupt their protest on Tuesday.
Some of the student leaders told SaharaReporters that a set of people who at first appeared as members of the National Association of Nigerian Students(NANS) attacked them while they were protesting against the failure of the school management to meet their demands.
In a video obtained by SaharaReporters, a student of political science is seen narrating how the thugs physically assaulted him at the school gate during the protest.
“Them dey beat me for gate. They say dem be NANS association, I no even know them sef (They beat me up at the school gate. They identified themselves as members of NANS but I don’t know them),” the student said in the video.
The video also captured the fracas between the protesting students and their supposed attackers and the students could be heard protesting against assaulting their members.
One of the student leaders who spoke to SaharaReporters claimed the attackers were sponsored by the Special Intervention Team (SIT) set up by the state government.
“They came with Hilux that has the inscription of the state government. Some of our students were injured during the attack and one of my boys got his phone damaged,” the student leader said.
But speaking with SaharaReporters, the school's Public Relations Officer, Otunba Mike Aladenika, denied the allegations made by the students, saying, “Nothing of such happened today.”
Mr Aladenika alleged that it was the students (the disbanded students’ union) who invited National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) members to join their struggle against the school.
He went on to say that the students' continued protest, “even when the major problem of tuition fee increment had been settled demonstrated that the demonstrators were after something secret”.
“The issue concerning tuition fees increment has been resolved and the school has resumed, normalcy has returned. What is expected of any legitimate students is to pursue their career.
“They are now demanding that the school should reinstate their leaders but what gives us the assurance that if the school did that, they would not make more demands,” Aladenika added.