Scores of students from various tertiary institutions in Oyo State on Monday again staged a protest over the lingering industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The students, under the aegis of Concerned Students, led by Solomon Emiola embarked on the protest on some major roads in the Ibadan metropolis leading to traffic gridlock.
The protesting students carrying placards with various inscriptions marched from the entrance of the University of Ibadan through Bodija to Iwo road thus causing gridlock on the Ojoo -UI -Sango road as well as Bodija road.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Emiola said the incessant strike by ASUU, ASUP, NASU and SSANU had impacted negatively on education in public tertiary institutions in the country.
He called on the federal government as a matter of urgency to reach a permanent agreement with the concerned unions in order to prevent education at higher institutions from total collapse.
“The protest started on Friday and it will continue until further notice. We started from UI to Ojoo to Iwo road and back to UI.
“The police didn’t want us to barricade the road and so they threatened us and we cautioned them by resisting them.”
Emiola also said that the protesting students were not ready to be used by the student union body which wanted to take the protest to the Oyo State Government Secretariat.
NAN reports that some members of concerned students gathered at the main gate of University of Ibadan by 8am to protest against the incessant strike by the teaching and non teaching staff of universities and polytechnics.
The security agencies comprising: Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Oyo state security outfit codenamed Operation Burst and Amotekun Corps provided security coverage to prevent the protest being hijacked by miscreants. (NAN)