Seven injured as Plateau students protest against exam shift

Seven persons reportedly sustained injuries, as students of Plateau State Polytechnic, Jos, were protesting, yesterday, against the postponement of their semester examination by the school authorities.

The Guardian gathered that the protest, which was meant to be peaceful, was hijacked by hoodlums, who smashed cars’ windscreens.

The students had trooped out as early as 8.00 a.m. and blocked the Yakubu Gowon Way, a highway to Jos.

The postponement of the examination was as a result of the strike embarked upon by lecturers, who had issued a notice to the government over its purported inability to meet their demands of earned allowances and other issues.

One of the students, Tindak Theophilius, told newsmen that about seven students were receiving treatment in a hospital in Jos, adding that some of them, who was asthmatic, could not stand the teargas fired to disperse the students.

He described the decision of the management to postpone the examination as an attempt to truncate their academic journey.

Another student, identified as Pam Bulus, decried the incessant strike by the lecturers, adding that the development stagnated their academic progress.

“Nobody has come to address us on the issue and we feel this is not right. We demand a proper explanation from the management on why we cannot start our examinations today. We are tired of this back and forth; our academic journey is suffering and this is not good for us,” he lamented.

Efforts to reach the Public Relations Officer of the institution, John Ramadan, was abortive till the time of sending this report.