National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has suspended its planned June 12 nationwide protest.
President of the association, Sunday Asefon, announced the suspension in a statement made available to newsmen on Friday in Abuja.
Titled, ‘NANS Suspends June 12 Protest Over Concerns About Safety Of Protesters And Fear Of Possible Hijack By Politicians’, Asefon said the aimed was to forestall disruption of peace in the country.
He noted that the suspended protest was aimed at drawing attention of the authorities to the insecurity in the country, especially the serial abductions of students.
Asefon, however, said some politicians with “different agenda” have perfected plans to hijack the protest to “ventilate their political opinions and sentiments”.
“The students’ body was not associated with the secessionist campaign. Having considered the current security realities and the danger to the lives of our members in case of possible hijack of the planned protest, I in consultation with all the structures of NANS, therefore, announce the suspension of our proposed protest for June 12.
“The suspension of the protest is necessary to avoid a clash of interest and clash with security agencies that are on red alert to protect the nation’s infrastructures from security breaches on the proposed date as a result of many other protests slated for the date.
“We intend to protest for better security and improved welfare for our students, we must therefore not put the life of any of our students at risk to ventilate our grievances,” he said.
Asefon however added that the protest was not cancelled but postponed as a new date would be announced later.
