Varsity protest: Read what UNICAL bursar turns campus into
– The institution’s student union president and journalists are reportedly beaten up by irate thugs during the protest
– Two factions of the protesters, one in favour of the vice chancellor and the other against, clashed over the attempted removal of the bursar
The police has been invited to suppress a crisis that evolved over an alleged attempt to remove the bursar of the University of Calabar (UNICAL) Peter Agi.
A cross section of the students of University of Calabar during protest
According to New Telegraph, this alleged attempt triggered the crisis on Monday, August 15, 2016, and the police helped to quell what would have become a free-for-all.
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Prior to the arrival of the police on the campus, some journalists were reportedly harassed by thugs.
The Cross River state correspondent of the Daily Trust, Eyo Charles and his colleague from the Africa independent television (AIT), Rasheed Olarenwaju, were lucky to escape with some slaps.
The AIT cameraman, Charles Ekpe, was also beaten to pulp while his camera was smashed.
The president of the students union government of the university, Daniel Joseph Eno, was beaten up by the thugs, a situation that almost elicited a violent reaction from the students before the police arrived and dispersed the crowd by shooting into the air.
A source, who craved anonymity, said that trouble started when the vice chancellor, Prof Zana Akpagu, attempted to remove Agi from office following complaints by some members of staff over what they described as his “high handedness” with respect to workers’ welfare.
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This did not go down well with some students who mobilised against the planned removal of the bursar, apparently to counter another protest staged by some administrative workers in support of the vice chancellor’s plan.
One of the administrative staff who pleaded anonymity, alleged that most of the institution’s workers were not happy with the bursar’s conduct for failing to pay them their allowances and other entitlements lately.
He said: “On several occasions, the bursar unilaterally slashed the workers’ salary without recourse to the VC, a development which most of the management staff kicked against.”
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