Group asks Ekiti to stop trial of protesting students

A human rights group has called on the Ekiti State government to unconditionally discontinue the trial of six students of the University of Ado Ekiti who were on August 25 arraigned before an Ado Ekiti magistrate court on a five-count charge.

The students were arraigned for breach of peace, unlawful tumultuous gathering and unlawful damage to properties, causing injuries while rioting, and assault on police officers by stoning.

But Nelson Ekujumi, the leader of the Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM), condemned what it said was a "barbaric, illegal, unconstitutional and unjust trial of six innocent students." It also said the state governor's visit to the University of Ado Ekiti last month for the school's inaugural lecture in utter disregard of intelligence reports "is the height of provocation and he ought to have been publicly rebuked".

"We have watched in suspense the repeated assaults on the collective intelligence of the good people of Ekiti State ...and we have also seen how he has unleashed anti-people policies on the people, the most recent being the inhuman increment in UNAD school fees, all with the satanic intention of promoting ignorance in this fountain of knowledge and wisdom," the group said.

The group also called on the Inspector General of Police to immediately order the Ekiti State police command to hands off the case and conduct a proper investigation of what led to the charges against the students.

Instigating unrest

Meanwhile, the Ekiti State commissioner for information and civic orientation, Taiwo Olatunbosun, has accused opposition politicians in the state of being the masterminds of the student protest.

Mr Olatunbosun accused those he said are the instigators of the unrest, of putting the lives of people in the university community at risk.

Adesoji Adegboye, the Magistrate hearing the case against the students, while adjourning the case till October 8 for hearing, granted the accused persons bail in the sum of N10, 000.00 each, with reasonable surety in like sum.

Some students of UNAD had, last month, protested the recent increase in the school's tuition fees, by pelting the state governor and some of his officials with stones during their visit to the school. Several of the students were later arrested by the police, out of which six were taken to court.


(2010-09-01/234next)