The Police Command of the Federal Capital Territory has explained why members of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) were restricted from leaving the Unity Fountain in Abuja.
There were reports that protesters who stormed the Unity Fountain in the early hours of Thursday, July 18, to protest a four-month backlog of salaries, were restricted from marching to the Federal Ministries of Education and Labour and Employment.
According to Peters Adeyemi, the General Secretary of NASU, who spoke with journalists at the protest ground, the unions planned to present letters to both ministries.
Clarifying why they were blocked, SP Josephine Adeh, the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, said that it was due to an agreement between the unions and the command.
According to the PPRO, they agreed that the protest would only happen within the Unity Fountain to avoid going into the street to cause lawlessness.
She said, “They wrote to protest, but it was agreed that it will be within the unity fountain where representatives of each association will address the press and subsequently take their complaints on behalf of others to the appropriate authorities without entering the streets, thereby causing lawlessness.”
