The police in Lagos have arrested 10 trade union leaders of the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu over alleged attempted murder.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the LASPOTECH unionists were arrested for molesting JAMB examiners conducting UTME on the campus.
Spokesman for Lagos Police Command, DSP Bala Elkana, confirmed the arrest to NAN on Tuesday, saying that the suspects were undergoing interrogation at Special Investigation Bureau of the command.
Elkana said the suspects were arrested for an alleged attempt to murder some JAMB officials who were carrying out official duties at the institution.
However, the police spokesman did not explain how the unionists attempted to kill the JAMB officials.
“They are undergoing interrogation at the headquarters for attempted murder. They will be charged to court as soon as investigation is concluded,” he said.
LASPOTECH Spokesman, Olanrewaju Kuye, who also confirmed the arrest, told NAN that the affected staff were arrested over alleged molestation of two JAMB staff on official duty on the campus.
He said that the matter was reported by JAMB to the police for investigation.
“The molested JAMB officials reported to the police”.
”The Polytechnic management only apologised to JAMB when we heard of it because we have not been allowed into our offices by the striking unions since January.”
“Since we are not on ground, we cannot really ascertain what happened, but would only depend on the report from the investigation of the police”.
“It is now a case of the police, JAMB versus the union and not the management,” he said.
The spokesman said the incident was an embarrassment and loss to the institution as JAMB immediately relocated its CBT centre from the polytechnic to another venue.
Non -academic staff of LASPOTECH, comprising Non-Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (NASUP) and The Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnic (SSANIP), had on Jan. 21 embarked on an indefinite strike.
The unions were demanding for a reversal in the de-migration of the polytechnic workers salary structure from the CONTISS 15 migration.
The unions have persistently staged daily protests and also prevented management staff from having access to their offices. (NAN)
