Angry students from various polytechnics in the country yesterday barricaded the main entrance of the Federal Ministry of Education headquarters in Abuja, demanding immediate end to the seven-month-old industrial action embarked upon by the lecturers under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP).
Supervising Minister for Education, Barrister Nyeso Wike, who was just driving in from an official function he had just attended at the National Universities Commission (NUC), had to be smuggled into his office through the back door, to avoid the rampaging students.
As at the time of filing in this report, neither he nor the vehicle was allowed in or out of the premises that is also housing the Ministry of Police Affairs.
Earlier, in a chat with newsmen at the NUC premises, Wike had assured that the government was making “serious efforts to resolve the crisis.”
He admitted that the two parties had just had a meeting “which would soon yield results,” but refused to disclose details of the discussion with the union for fear of being misquoted.
