University Students Protest, Block Akure-Abuja Highway Over Ongoing ASUU Strike

University Students Protest, Block Many members of the National Association of University Students (NAUS) in Ondo State are currently protesting over the lingering strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The protesting students blocked the busy Ibadan-Akure-Abuja in highway in Ondo State, showing their grievances against the unresolved dispute between the Federal Government and the academic union.

The blockade has caused heavy vehicular traffic along the highway as many heavy-duty trucks and passengers’ buses going to and from Abuja, Lagos or Benin were stranded.

Motorists travelling to nearby communities along the highway resorted to taking the alternative untarred route.

A former Student Union President of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Esedere Abraham, told newsmen that the protest would continue until ASUU called off the strike action.

Esedere stated that students should not be made to suffer for any problem between ASUU and the Federal Government.

Vice-Chairman of NAUS, Ondo State chapter, Shittu Folarin, said the students want to ensure this would be the last action by ASUU.

Barely a week ago, members of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) protested in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, as they blocked some major highways in the nation’s capital.

They carried banners and held placards with various slogans and shouted solidarity songs.

Speaking during the protest, Asefon said, “If education wasn’t freely given to them, they would not be in government. If education wasn’t given freely to them, they wouldn’t be professors today, we want to be professors as well in the future, we want to be ministers, we want to be governors and presidents. But all these cannot be possible until our schools are opened. We are so disappointed in ASUU and Federal Government.”