In the wake of a violent police crackdown on a peaceful protest by university unions in Abuja, the organizations are now demanding immediate action from the government.
According to Benson Upah, the Head of Information and Public Affairs, the FCT Police Commissioner, Compol Bennett Igweh, has overseen a dramatic rise in crime and insecurity across the capital under his watch.
“Under Compol Igweh’s watch, FCT has been crawling with bandits, criminals and crooks (both in low and high places) even in the heart of the city. Life has never been this frightening for law-abiding citizens,” Upah stated.
Yet, instead of addressing these public safety concerns, Igweh chose to deploy armored tanks, assault dogs, and riot police to brutally disperse the protest by members of the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) at the Unity Fountain on July 18th.
The unions say the protest was prompted by the government’s failure to pay their salaries for the past four months, despite other workers receiving compensation for the same strike action.
“The two unions had exhausted all means lawful over a long stretch of time including a warning strike as means for getting their salaries paid. But clearly, government took their maturity and patience for granted,” Upah added.
The unions have condemned Igweh’s actions as a violation of the constitution, ILO conventions, and a Supreme Court ruling that affirms citizens’ right to protest peacefully without police approval.
“If government and the police are proud law breakers, what moral justification do they have to expect others to be of good behaviour!” Upah remarked.
In response, the unions are demanding an immediate apology from the police for their “violation” of NASU and SSANU members, as well as the prompt payment of the withheld salaries.
Upah warned that the government is “courting a major national industrial protest” if it continues to ignore these demands and the police commissioner’s “unprofessional and disgusting behaviour.”
The unions are calling on the government to hold Compol Igweh accountable and to ensure the constitutional rights of citizens are protected. Failure to do so, they say, risks escalating the situation into a nationwide crisis.