Primary School Pupils Protest Over Teachers Strike In Benue
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| Internet PHOTO |
Teachers of primary schools in the agrarian state had, on 24th October, 2013, embarked on indefinite strike to press the non-implementation of the minimum wage by the state government.
But the Benue State governor, Gabriel Suswam, has not given reasons behind the failure of government to implement the salary thresh hold which the payment was assured to commence on August 1st, 2013.
However, the primary school pupils, who carried placards, school books and bags began the peaceful demonstration at the LGEA primary school Demekpe, located near the NKST church, Wadata, chanted protest songs and peacefully marched towards the state secretariat of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC).
The protest which started at about 8 am lasted for barely two hours when men of the police and the Nigerian Civil Defence and Security Corps arrived to the scene to abort the protest. They shot sporadically in the air and threw cans of tear gas at the pupils to disperse them.
On the busy Benue crescent that linked the Makurdi modern market and wadata area, the pupils of NKST primary school and LGEA primary school and that of UBE center, barricaded the major road and burnt tyres on it to mark the level of their grievances. The incident disrupted traffic for several hours.
It was learnt that hoodlums in the area took advantage of the protest to dispose people of their valuable belongings. The situation prompted the men of the police who quickly came and shot guns in the air to scare the hoodlums, making no fewer than ten pupils seriously injured in the process.
The sporadic shooting scared the pupils who hurriedly ran for safety while those injured were taken to various nearby hospitals.
A pupil who identified herself as Peter Dauda, said “ We decided to protest on the streets because we are not happy as government is refusing to pay our teachers and we don’t want to go on strike, we want to go to school.”========Credit
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