Federal Poly students, police clash over power outage

By duru emmanuel .c

On September 14, 2014 · Trending

Erinfun community in Ekiti State was yesterday thrown into confusion, as stu­dents of the Federal Polytechnic and the residents clashed.
The rampaging students, who were protesting against power cut for over a month in the community, engaged policemen for about two hours. They threw stones, cudgels and canisters at the police in return for the tear-gas canisters shot at them.
The crisis caused a se­rious gridlock before the anti-riot squad stormed the scene and dispersed the protesters.
Following the interven­tion of the squad, the stu­dents retreated into the outskirts of the community. The security operatives later moved into the area to effect some arrests.
Speaking with cardinalpopes.blogspot.com, a resident of the community, who craved anonymity said: “They (students) were protest­ing because we haven’t had electricity in this area for over a month now. The protesters were very an­gry because they had writ­ten countless letters to the management of the Power Holding Company of Ni­geria (PHCN) but didn’t get any reply or improve­ment. They were also angry that Afe Babalola students’ hostel enjoy constant power supply while the commu­nity is in darkness. This to them amounts to inequal­ity”
Public Relations of the Afe Babalola University and spokesman to Chief Afe Babalola, Mr Tunde Olofintila, decried the un­ruly behavior of the stu­dents. He revealed that the protesters attacked Chief Babalola’s vehicle and the school hostel yesterday morning when they started the riot. “They complained that the Erinfun community has been having power cut for over a month and Chief Afe Babalola as an elder statesman and one whose influence brought the Fed­eral Polytechnic to the state, decided to intervene in the matter. He called the Rector of the university and asked the students to send three of their representatives so that they could meet the unit head of the Power Hold­ing Company of Nigeria (PHCN). At a point, they agreed. But again, they said they were not going to the PHCN and then started the riot. They stoned Chief Afe’s vehicle and attacked part of his hostel in the community.
We had no option than to alert the police who came to bring normalcy to the chaos the students caused.”
The students and some residents in the area asked why would Chief Afe Baba­lola’s hostel have electricity when the community didn’t have for over a month and we explained to them that the hostel was running on generator and that it was the PHCN that is responsible to give them power not Chief Afe Babalola,” he said.