Police in Lagos used tear gas on Friday to disperse angry university students protesting President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to change the name of their school.
The Associated Press reports that the protest began peacefully at the University of Lagos. But students then surrounded an armored police truck and beat on it.
Police fired tear gas and hundreds of students responded with a barrage of thrown stones.
President Jonathan on Tuesday renamed UNILAG to Moshood Abiola University in honor of the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief M.K.O Abiola, who died in prison over a decade ago.
The president said the name change would honour Abiola's "heroism."
He also announced that government would establish an institute of democratic studies in the renamed university.
For many students, however, this is an unfair trade-off. They argued that the government has perennially neglected the university which has overcrowded classrooms and ill-equipped laboratories.
The university senate declared a sudden two-week holiday on Wednesday but many students remain in the university's dormitories, from where they continue to organise protests.
The Associated Press reports that the protest began peacefully at the University of Lagos. But students then surrounded an armored police truck and beat on it.
Police fired tear gas and hundreds of students responded with a barrage of thrown stones.
President Jonathan on Tuesday renamed UNILAG to Moshood Abiola University in honor of the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief M.K.O Abiola, who died in prison over a decade ago.
The president said the name change would honour Abiola's "heroism."
He also announced that government would establish an institute of democratic studies in the renamed university.
For many students, however, this is an unfair trade-off. They argued that the government has perennially neglected the university which has overcrowded classrooms and ill-equipped laboratories.
The university senate declared a sudden two-week holiday on Wednesday but many students remain in the university's dormitories, from where they continue to organise protests.
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