LASU Students Protest Police Harassment

Students of the Lagos State University (LASU) have protested attack on one of their colleagues, Sodiq Shodipe, by men of the Nigeria Police Force, Ojokoro station, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

On Monday, 20 June, 2011 at Iyana Ipaja area of the state, Sodiq, a student of Social Science of the institution, was allegedly hit by a moving vehicle and the driver was allowed to drive off by the police because she is wife of a cop.

Campus Square learnt that the student was said to have also been beaten by the police for creating what it was termed “public nuisance.”

Recounting his ordeal in a chat with Campus Square, the victim said “I was beaten and my clothes were torn, while my phone was seized because I used it to take a shot of the scene. They even threatened to kill me before I called our Students’ Union leaders who came to my rescue.” The students’ representative led by the Speaker, Comrade Balogun Ameen, stormed the police station at Ojokoro in a campus shuttle vehicle in order to settle the matter amicably, but was prevented from gaining access to the divisional police officer.

Ameen described the act as inhuman, saying “we can’t continue to tolerate the attitude of the police towards our students. We believe that the establishment of police force all over the world is to protect and ensure security of lives and property of the citizens, but in Nigeria, the reverse is the case.

“We’ve witnessed different assaults such as unlawful arrests, coercion and humiliation, etc., on our students by the police and nothing has been done to address these,” he lamented.

The students therefore called on the Inspector General of Police and Commissioner of Police, Lagos Police Command, to intervene in the matter immediately. All efforts to speak with the police PRO on the issue proved abortive as at the time of filing this report.