Students plan protest – This time over police ‘barbarity’

Students were last week planning a silent march, after police violently broke up a previous demonstration against university authorities’ refusal to meet students' demands for increased grants and permission to study in lecture halls outside course times, curtailment of Wi-Fi and bad living conditions, among other grievances.

The students’ organisation Ligue Togolaise des Droits des Étudiants, or LTDE, called for the second march to the prime minister’s headquarters, supported by other student bodies the Coordination des Élèves et Étudiants du Togo and the Association des Étudiants Chrétiens, reported Télégramme of Lomé.

In a statement signed by its president, Foly Satchivi, the LTDE justified the silent march as a response to the “obstinate and blatant refusal of the university president and board, and of the government, to meet the students’ legitimate demands conveyed by LTDE”, and also “in reaction to the cruel, barbaric and savage behaviour of the police on Wednesday, 7 June 2017 following the peaceful demonstration of students in front of the prime minister’s office”.

The students’ demands included increases in grants to FCA20,000 (US$34) a month, or FCA30,000 (US$51) for scholarship students, with the third payment to be made before exams took place; reorganisation of exam resits in all subjects; abolition of the university president’s order forbidding students to study in the lecture halls and classrooms outside course hours; removal of time limits to Wi-Fi connections on campus; repayment to students of money ‘unfairly stolen’ from accounts by three banks; and improvement of students’ wretched living, studying and test conditions, reported Télégramme.

This article is drawn from local media. University World News cannot vouch for the accuracy of the original reports.