BY LAJU ARENYEKA

LAGOS— Students of Polytechnics and Colleges of Education embarked on a protest in Lagos, yesterday, to bemoan the prolonged strike by their lecturers.

The protest, however, turned sour when policemen fired shots into the air, beat up and arrested some of the protesters.

The placard-carrying protesters, about 1,000 in number, gathered under the aegis of the Concerned Citizens Against Education Commercialization, COSATEC, consisted mostly of students from Yaba College of Technology, YABATECH, and Federal College of Technology, FCE, Akoka, members of the Education Rights Campaign, ERC, and other concerned youths.

According to Tola Femi Ogunleye, one of the protesting students: “The grievances of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU, are not at all unreasonable.

“They are for the betterment of the educational system. This is why we are calling on the Federal Government to meet those demands. We condemn the Federal Government’s lackadaisical attitude towards resolving the strike.”

Dada Idris, General Secretary of COSATEC, told Vanguard: “I just graduated but I cannot commence my National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, until the strike is called off. It is just so sad that government is spending billions on Boko Haram but has totally forgotten the leaders of tomorrow.”

Beginning as a small gathering at about 10.00 a.m at the YABATECH gate, the crowd grew speedily during their sojourn, chanting solidarity songs like “Education is our right” and “Solidarity forever.”

Within the space of two hours, the crowd had brought traffic in the Yaba environs to a standstill, with hundreds of commuters spending as much as an hour on a typical 10 minute drive. It was then that Policemen intervened.

Olusoga Oderinu, a student of Yaba College of Technology told Vanguard: “There was no reason for the Police to arrest us. We were in a peaceful procession trying to leave Yaba for Third Mainland Bridge when policemen accosted us around Adekunle bus stop.

“They said we were blocking the road and started shooting into the air and throwing teargas canisters at us. They beat us with their batons and arrested about 50 of us, including some journalists and ordered us into a Black Maria. Some of my friends are bleeding from the rough handling.”

However, none of the protesters was detained as those arrested were later released.