Hundreds of students of the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State disrupted social activities on the campus of the institution on Thursday as they protested against their lecturers joining the nationwide strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics.
The lecturers of the state-owned Polytechnic, who just resumed from an industrial action a few weeks ago, joined their counterparts across the country for the ASUP strike on Monday.
The RUGIPO students kicked against the action of the lecturers, saying they (lecturers) were insensitive to their (students) academic career. They added that the lecturers were not supposed to join the nationwide strike.
The angry protesters barricaded the school main entrance, preventing vehicles from going in or going out of the campus of the of the institution for several hours.
They were also armed with placards with various inscriptions such as “If truly we are the leaders of tomorrow, why stampeding our future’, ‘Ijawoye (ASUP Chairman) stop using us as instrument of negotiation,’’ ‘ASUP members graduated, let us too graduate’ among others.
According to the protesting students, the decision of the RUGIPO lecturers to join the strike was illegal and a height of irresponsibility since they just resumed after embarking on a local strike for several weeks.
Speaking with journalists, President of the Student Union Government of the institution, Mr. Temitayo Aiyejuyo, said the striking lecturers were not fair to the students by joining the nationwide strike of the ASUP.
He said since the lecturers of the institution just called off a local industrial action recently, they were not supposed embarked on another strike.
He said, “We believe the ASUP national strike does not concern them, they just resumed from a strike recently, they should be able to consider us, they should be able to know that our future is being affected by their industrial action.”
Aiyejuyo urged the striking lecturers to return to the classroom in the interest of peace and future of the students.
However, the ASUP Chairman in RUGIPO, Mr. Rafiu Ijawoye, said the union must obey the directive from its national headquarters, urging the students to be patient and bear with them.
“We have no option but to comply with the directive from the National Headquarters of the ASUP,” the chairman stated
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