Police teargas, disperse protesting UNILAG students… 

Public outrage has greeted the firing of teargas canisters and rubber bullets on University of Lagos (UNILAG) students who stormed the streets to protest the hike in school fees.

A solidarity group against the fee hike had called for the protest in collaboration with the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) following the 100 percent increment in school fees.

The university’s management in July increased fees citing “prevailing economic realities” as a reason for the hike.

Angered by the development, the students who felt the school was being insensitive to their plights and those of their sponsors, staged a peaceful protest in front of the university’s gate at Akoka, Yaba, yesterday.

They later marched towards the Atan cemetery where there was confrontation with police operatives.

Although the police had claimed they dispersed the students to prevent the protest from being hijacked by criminal elements giving the alarm earlier raised by the Department of State Services (DSS) on plans by misguided individuals to cause instability in the country; Nigerians on the social media who came hard on the authorities, said the student’s constitutional rights to peaceful protest were violated.

It was also observed that police patrol vehicles were stationed with their operatives along strategic routes leading to the university.

It was learnt that four protesters including Femi Adeyeye, Philip Olatinwo  and Ayodele Aduwo, were whisked away in a police van.