NANS faction gives ultimatum for release of detained UNILAG students

A faction of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has given a 24-hour ultimatum to the University of Lagos to release the 13 students detained at the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prisons.

The President of NANS, Chinonso Obasi, who spoke with journalists in Abuja yesterday, condemned the court’s ruling, which remanded them in prison custody.

He threatened to relocate NANS headquarters to the prisons if the students were not released.

He said: “After a painstaking review of the circumstances surrounding the draconian ruling, we have resolved to demand the unconditional release of these students within 24 hours.

“Consequently, we boldly state that if these students are not unconditionally released at the expiration of our ultimatum, the prison authorities should be prepared to expand its facilities to detain all of us.”

Obasi stressed that the offence allegedly committed by the students does not equate the court’s ruling to imprison them because they could be radicalised in the process.

According to the NANS leader, the court could have cautioned them to be of good behaviour since they were first-time offenders.

“In saner climes, what the judge should have done was to certify that the suspects were truly students of the university and release them to the school for appropriate disciplinary action. In the alternative, they could have been warned to change and freed,” he said.

He added that the manner the sentence was done showed that some hidden forces were behind it.