National Association of Nigerian Students ( NANS) this morning made good their threat as they cordoned off access and exit to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport ( MMIA) Terminal in Lagos in protest of the ongoing seven month strike instituted by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Under the heavy rains in Lagos the students, numbering hundreds, used vehicles and every available available to block inbound and outbound traffic from the Ajao to Hajj Camp area carrying placards like Adamu Must Go! Mallam Adamu Adamu Resign Now!! among others to press home their demands for FG to conclude with ASUU so they can go back to school.
This action around the airport caused a ripple as air travellers were seen with their bags over their head trekking through all in a bid to meet up their flights.
Even access from Ikeja was no help as traffic has built up to a standstill for vehicles coming into the airport from that access point.
According to spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, police officers have been deployed to the scene.
The students who as early as 7am were already o ground chanting solidarity songs continued to press home their demands even as officers of the Nigeria police could only encourage decorum to avoid a breakdown of law and order.
NANS Public Relations Officer, Giwa Temitope, who confirmed the presence of security operatives said:
“They are here to protect us. Nobody has been harassed, but we are not relenting. No retreat, no surrender”, he said
NANS executives following the seven months impasse between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), at the weekend in Akure, the Ondo State capital threatened to ground activities at international airports across the country.
According to the students, the four-day shutdown of busy highways and expressways had been a success, hence the move to disrupt international travels as from September 19, 2022, in order for the bourgeois and the government to feel the pains that they have subjected students to in the past seven months.
Recall while speaking with newsmen, the Chairman, NANS National Task Force on ‘End ASUU Strike Now,’ Ojo Raymond Olumide, disclosed that students were already tired of pleading with both parties over the need to end the strike.
Olumide emphasised that the airports that will be occupied will remain grounded until the strike is called off, adding that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration must pay all outstanding arrears and salaries of the lecturers.
“We shall begin another round of protest next week by storming the airspaces to #OccupyTheAirports. We want to let the world know about the pains and anguish students are going through.
