LASU Crisis: SUG President Appears Before House Of Assembly

Student Union President of the Lagos State University, Miss Mojirade Hassan, on Friday, told members of the state House of Assembly that protest embarked upon by the students to register their displeasure over the closure of the portal, was hijacked by unknown hoodlums.

While addressing the lawmakers on the floor of the House, the she explained that the issue got out of hand after the affected students staged a peaceful protest at the school Senate Building to appeal to the management to re-open the school portal for registration.

She pointed out that despite all the pleas by the affected students, the Vice-Chancellor, John Obafunwa, and other management staff of the school turned deaf ears to the pleas of the students.

According to Mojirade, several meetings were held with the Vice-Chancellor to ensure that the portal was re-opened to students who were ready to pay the stipulated fees.

“The school management closed the portal but students were still paying and they could not access the portal to register.

“When some of the students approached the Chairman, Governing Council, Mr. Bode Augusto, he was told them about the financial problems being encountered by the school. I told the VC that we want to meet with him and he told me that if it was about the re-opening of the portal I intend to discuss, he would disappoint me.

“I begged the VC to re-open the portal for just two hours and I informed him that the affected students had threatened to protest if the portal was not re-opened but he said ‘they should go ahead, we will meet there.’

It was learnt that the protest in front of the institution’s Senate Building started peacefully as students displayed the usual placards with pleading inscriptions.

Some of them even knelt down to plead, but when the VC and other management staff got in front of the crowd, they drove the students away.

“The students took the streets after this and I called the VC to let him know that the issue had gone out of hand but he told me to pacify the students. I told him it had gone beyond what I could handle. It was then he told me that he hadinvolved the State Security Service. If the VC had addressed the students, the issue wouldn’t have degenerated to violence,” the union President said.

Earlier in his comments, the Obafunwa alleged that some of the students were negligent which was why they failed to pay and register. He explained that the portal was closed and re-opened severally and “some of the students still refused to register.”

“The issue is beyond the closure of the portal because I witnessed what happened and if not for God, we would have been talking of obituaries this morning. The question is, ‘Do we really want a new LASU’? What we have done is to instill discipline in the students,” Obafunwa added.