UNIBEN Students, Staff, To Stage Huge Protest Tuesday Over Demolition Of Institution's Buildings By Oshiomhole

SAN FRANCISCO, January 19, (THEWILL) – Students of the University of Benin, Edo State Monday said they will embark on a huge protest that is expected to shutdown all activities in Edo State on Tuesday, saying Governor Adams Oshiomhole has been “unremorseful of his actions towards the demolition of University of Benin buildings” and the molestation of lecturers by thugs allegedly sponsored by the governor.

According to leaflets circulated in Edo State by the Students' Union Government (SUG) of the federal government funded school, the students said there will be a total shutdown of all activities in the state starting from 7.am when the protest starts.

At least twelve lecturers, mostly professors were molested and beaten to a pulp by thugs on their way from the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre where they had gone to protest the pulling down of their official residences located in GRA, Benin by thugs hired by Edo State Government.

More than a dozen buildings were destroyed while the occupants were still in them. One the buildings was the official residence of the immediate past Vice-Chancellor of UNIBEN, Professor Osayuki Oshodin.

The demolition came in the wake of an appeal filed by the university challenging the ruling of a State High Court in the suit by the Edo State Government over a large expanse of prime land that the defunct Mid-West State Government allegedly donated to the university in the seventies.

The state government won a prayer in the court that the property in dispute belongs to it.