By Samuel Oyadongha
YENAGOA—OVER 200 women of Agudama-Epie, Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, yesterday, took to the streets of the capital city, to protest the proposed siting of the Nigerian Law School in their community.

The protesters, mostly the aged, defied the large presence of anti riot policemen deployed in the area, threatening a repeat of the Aba Women’s Riot if the Governor Timipre Sylva led administration failed to return their land.

The women who called for the relocation of the institution, said they were prepared to walk naked on the streets of the state capital to press home their demand.

They demanded that instead of converting the Bayelsa College of Arts and science, BYCAS premises to the Nigerian Law School campus, the sprawling complex should be upgraded to a College of Education or Polytechnic.

Led by one Chief Mrs. Rowland, the protesters berated the state government over its alleged insensitivity to the plight of the people of the community.

Armed with placards some of which read “say no to Law School,” “upgrade BYCAS to COE or Polytechnic,” and “We don’t need law school” among others, the women called on the Federal Government to have a re_think over its decision to establish the school in the state.

Though they argued that having a law school in the state was good they, however, insisted: “That is not what we need now. Majority of our children have not attained that level. More so you cannot compare its intake with that of the College of Education or State Polytechnic.

“At the inception of the present administration in the state, what we were made to believe was that the then Bayelsa State College of Arts and Science would be upgraded to College of Education or State Polytechnic but it is not so again.

With College of Education in our community, our children will have access to quality education while there will be employment opportunities for teeming youths in the state.”

The state Commissioner for Education, Chief Josephine Ezonbodor, could not be reached at the time of this report but a senior government official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Vanguard that the decision to convert the disputed land formerly hosting BYCAS to Nigeria Law School was collectively taken at the state executive council meeting.

He said: “The place is now Law School, College of Education is going to Okpoama and if the community doesn’t want that then that is an issue they have to raise with government.”