THE peaceful protest by the striking Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics and College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) turned awry on Tuesday, as police freely tear-gassed and threw canisters at the protesters and journalists covering the protest.

 The development led to stampede and pandemonium at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja, at about 10:13 a.m, shortly after the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Chukwuemeka Wogu, came down from his office to address the protesters.

 Wogu was lucky to have escaped the stampede but some of the federal workers who came out to watch the protest as well as journalists who were covering the protest were dazed by the impact of the dangerous chemicals inhaled.

The lecturers were seen using water and kerosene to rub their faces in order to cushion the effect of the tear gas.

The entire federal secretariat was like a war zone on Tuesday with heavy detachment of police that were stationed strategically as early as 7:00a.m before the protesters stormed the arena.

The lecturers, who turned out in their numbers from both federal and state polytechnics and colleges of education across the country defied initial attempt by the police to deny them entrance into  the Ministry of Education and Labour and Productivity.

  ASUP President, Dr Chibuzor Asomugha and COEASU President, Mr Asagha Nkoro led the protest with hundreds of members of the two unions carrying placards of various inscriptions and chanting I.T.T (International Thief, Thief) lyrics of the late bohemian Afro King, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

The first port of call was at the Federal Ministry of Education where they laid siege and demanded for the resignation of the supervising Minister of Education, Mr Nyesom Wike.

COEASU, on the other hand, is fighting for the first issue which is the non- implementation of Peculiar Academic Allowance to the tune of N5.6 billion, migration of the lower cadre to the CONPCASS 15, imposition of integrated IPPIS, inadequate finding of the teaching practice, non- accreditation of NCE programmes, non-release of  White paper on Visitation Panel Reports 2011, non-implementation of CONPCASS in some states, non-institution of dual mode which allows colleges of education the autonomy to award degrees in core education courses to run concurrently with the NCE programmes among others.

In his earlier address, Minister of Labour said “The truth is that we are almost there. I want to reassure you that the Federal Government is doing its best. And I want to assure you that immediately we leave here, I will go with your leaders to discuss and conclude. I cannot discuss with everybody. I cannot discuss with everybody.”  

SSUCOEN calls for Wike’s sack
The Senior Staff Union of Colleges of Education (SSUCOEN) South-West zone, on Tuesday, called on the Federal Government to sack the coordinating Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike.

This was disclosed by the union’s South-West zonal chairman, Comrade Oladapo Olalere, during a press conference held at the NUJ Press Centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan.

Olalere stated further that the non- implementation/review of 2009 FGN/ SSUCOEN salary agreement should be met hence, some state colleges won’t call off the two-month old nationwide strike.

The union had, on Monday,  January 6, 2014, embarked on a seven-day warning strike to press home their demand on sundry issues including: “non-full implementation of CONTEDISS salary structure, non-implementation of 65 years retirement,among others.