THE Federal Government Friday followed up its order on striking varsity lecturers, with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar, ordering the immediate deployment of police officers and men to all campuses nationwide.
The police are to thwart any move by officials of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to picket lecturers that might return in obedience to the government directives on Thursday.
The government, through the supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, had urged the teachers, under the aegis of ASUU, to resume work by December 4, this year or face the prospect of being sacked.
Lecturers in both federal and state universities have been on strike since June over alleged failure of the central government to meet its commitment and obligations with respect to the FG/ASUU 2009 Agreement.
Efforts to resolve the impasse had failed, with both sides blaming each other for impeding the processes of the agreement.
In a statement Friday in Abuja, the Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Frank Mba, explained that the IGP’s order stemmed from the design “to help secure life and property in the Ivory Towers and provide enabling environment for lecturers, students, academic and non-academic staff to go about their lawful businesses without let or hindrance.”
He said the directive was a proactive and confidence-boosting measure designed to ensure that nothing untoward happened in the country’s academic communities.
While reassuring the affected university communities nationwide of the commitment of the police to provide adequate security, Mba said all those involved should confidently go about their legitimate duties without fear of “molestation or intimidation from any quarters.”
Accordingly, he directed all Command Commissioners of Police to personally oversee the intensification of surveillance activities around the universities within their state commands.
“They are to take all necessary security measures needed to provide for the safety and security of staff and students, as well as property within the various campuses,” he said.
Giving the seven-day ultimatum in Abuja while fielding questions from journalists, the minister said the government had reviewed the entire situation and came to the conclusion that the continuation of the strike was an attempt by ASUU to sabotage efforts to address the issues at stake.
He said the government had directed that all vice chancellors of federal universities currently on strike should immediately reopen for academic and allied activities, as directed by their pro-chancellors.
Wike added: “Any academic staff, who fails to resume on or before December 4, 2013, automatically ceases to be a staff of the institution.
“Vice chancellors should ensure that staff, who resume for work, are provided with enabling environment for academic and allied activities.”
He condemned ASUU’s insistence that its conditions must be met before it could suspend the five-month-old strike, “after they had an agreement with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Villa.”
He directed the National Universities Commission (NUC) to “monitor the compliance of these directives by the various institutions, as the federal government has met all its commitment and obligations with respect to the FG/ASUU 2009 Agreement.”
But ASUU, in a swift reaction, dared the government to carry out the threat, saying it would fail.
The union said the action had vindicated its position that the government was not committed to implementing any resolutions it reached with it.
Meanwhile, as a sign of how the strike has negatively affected students, who are bearing the brunt of the disagreement between the federal government and the lecturers, the police have arrested a 300-level Law student of the Kogi State University for allegedly vandalising an electricity transformer.
The 24-year-old student (name withheld) blamed his action on idleness, as a result of the prolonged strike by ASUU members.
The state Commissioner of Police, Saidu Madawaki, yesterday at command’s headquarters in Lokoja, paraded the student alongside with one Ibrahim Abdullahi for being in possession of one locally-made pistol and four live AK47 ammunition.
Madawaki disclosed that the student was arrested in the act on Idah road, Agbeji Village in Anyigba, following a tip-off that some hoodlums were vandalising the transformer. Other members of the gang escaped.
He explained that the case was still under investigation, as detectives were making frantic efforts to apprehend his cohorts.
He stressed that more police operatives had been deployed to the state to ensure that the people enjoyed crime-free Christmas celebrations.
In a chat with newsmen, the student said he got tired of staying at home in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, for months.
“At the school, I was short of money and my dad sent me N5,000 on two occasions to come back home, but I spent the money.
“This made me to approach a friend, who is also a student, to assist me with money to go back home, but my friend said he was also broke.
“He, however, said he had some equipment from a transformer he had vandalised and that I should help him to pick it and we will sell it and he will give me the sum of N50,000, instead of the N4,000 that I asked him to borrow me, to enable me to travel home.
“Immediately he said that, I was interested in the business. It was when I was removing the equipment that I was arrested, but he (accomplice) escaped.”
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