Ike Nnachi, Abakaliki
Commercial motorcycle and tricycle operators on Tuesday barricaded the entrance gate of Alex Ekwueme University Ndufu Alike, Ikwo (AE-FUNAI), in Ebonyi State to protest the institution’s management decision to ban them from operating within the school premises.
Students, lecturers and staff were prevented from accessing the school in the morning hours.
The protesters were, however, later dispersed by the Police and Military officers who were drafted in to restore peace.
Sources said the institution’s management were forced to take action as the okada and keke riders were constituting nuisance and security risk to the university community.
According to the source, the last straw was when they beat up a lecturer right inside the university premises about a month ago.
Spokesperson of the institution, Iyke Elom, confirmed the incident adding that normalcy has returned after intervention of security agents.
He said the operators were becoming a menace in the institution and all efforts to get them to be peaceful and decorous proved abortive.
“They have been constituting serious nuisance in the school. They beat up a lecture, harassing students, blaring horns, blasting loud music and generally constituting a menace. So the university took a decision to ban them before the situation is exacerbated,” he said.
He noted that the ban has been well received by the students, lecturers and entire student community as it has led to the institution become a serene and calm place it should be.
But, President of the Keke riders association, Njoku Ejike, said they had issues with the security officials of the school leading to a committee being set up to resolve it.
He however said the school management didn’t wait for the committee to conclude its job before banning its members from operating within the school premises.
He lamented that the youths of the community are angry because their lands were taken from them and no jobs given to them in the school to sustain them after they lost their farmlands to the school.
“We the youths after they collected our lands they didn’t give us job and they didn’t pay us any compensation and now they also don’t want us to operate within the school. We have been operating in the school from the time of the previous administration in the school,” he said.
Chairman of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the institution hailed the ban.
He said the keke and okada riders turned the school into a market place instead of an institution of learning.
“Keke and okada are not allowed into other institutions of higher learning so why should AE-FUNAI be any different? They turned the school into a market place. The lives of our Lecturers and students were put at risk. They assaulted a lecturer,” he said.
Student Union Government (SUG) President, Wilson Umahi, said the institution’s management and the SUG administration are making efforts to provide shuttle buses that will be operating within the school.
