June 12 protest holds, southwest students say NANS president on his own
- The June 12 protest in southwest will go on despite the withdrawal of the national body of Nigerian students
- According to southwest students, the president of the National Association of Nigerian Students does not speak for them
- The body consequently urged all student union presidents in southwest to continue their mobilisation and ensure that the protest holds
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Lagos, Nigeria - Southwest students have vowed to protest on June 12 despite the statement from the national president.
According to the National Association of Nigerian Students, Zone D (South-West), Sunday Asefon, the president has no right to announce the suspension of the protest without consulting them, Punch Newspaper reports.
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The southwest students in a statement was signed by the coordinator, NANS Zone D, Kowe Odunayo Amos; and secretary-general, NANS Zone D, Giwa Yisa Temitope, the president is on his own.
They said students in southwest should go out to protest on June 12, Peoples Gazette added.
The statement read in part:
“It is most pathetic to read the statement issued by the President of NANS, Sunday Asefon calling for the cancellation of the June 12 protest which had been planned for and which has had preparations at top-gear for the execution of such. In fact, it must be put in proper perspective that the statement was issued in his personal capacity as the President of NANS and not on behalf of the association."
“It should be noted that just yesterday, while Sunday Asefon was busy mouthing the government’s position, students and staffs of Kaduna Polytechnic were being kidnapped.
“As a Zone, we totally dissociate ourselves from the statement of the NANS President and call on SU bodies throughout the South West campuses to maintain the mobilisation which is on the ground. June 12 day of action is sacrosanct and we shall never for any reason succumb to blackmail of any sort. Our agitation is strictly a call for the federal government to abide by the social contract willingly entered into with the Nigerian people.”
NANS suspends planned June 12 protests
Recall that Legit.ng reported that NANS suspended its planned June 12 nationwide protest.
NANS president, Sunday Asefon, made this known in a statement seen by Legit.ng on Friday morning, June 11. According to the NANS president, the planned protest was aimed at decrying the insecurity in the country, especially the serial abductions of students.
Asefon raised an alarm saying some politicians have perfected plans to hijack the protest for their own selfish interests.
Army, Police, NSCDC in Show-of-Force Over Planned June 12 Protest
Meanwhile, men of the Nigeria Army, Police, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps on Thursday engaged in a show of force ahead of the proposed nationwide protest by some groups in commemoration of the annulled June 12 presidential election.
The procession by the security operatives was held on the streets of Osogbo, the Osun state capital.
According to the report, security men in many trucks blowing sirens were seeing moving along some major streets in Osogbo early in the morning.
Yoruba forum issues stern warning to individuals planning nationwide protest
In another report, individuals planning a nationwide protest on June 12 Democracy Day have been warned to stay away from the southwest region.
The stern warning was issued by a socio-cultural group in the southwest, Yoruba Appraisal Forum (YAF) via a statement in Lagos state on Friday, June 11. According to the national coordinator of the group, Chief Adesina Animashan, the region would never allow protesters to mar the peace as the day should be for celebration and not protests.
Animashan went on to note that the people of the southwest would neither support, tolerate nor join such protests.
Source: Legit.ng
