ASUU Strike: Flights Cancelled, Air Passengers Trekked Four Kilometers as Students Seize Lagos Airport

By Lawan Bukar Maigana

Local and foreign passengers who were scheduled to travel on Monday via the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) had to trek for about four Kilometers due to a protest staged by angry students of public universities over the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Aside from the heavy rain that brought along flooding and the attendant traffic gridlock, the Apapa-Oshodi-MMIA Airport road in the city was compounded by the protest embarked upon by the students.

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The protesters, identified as members and leaders of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), blocked the road that leads to the international airport while passengers who wanted to go to the local airport through the Mafoluku road were held up by traffic jams caused by the protesting students.

Most of the passengers including white men had to trek long distances while touts who offered to carry their luggages charged them exorbitant fares.

Our correspondent also gathered that a lot of the flights that were meant to take off from the airport on Monday were cancelled due to the chaos caused by the students.

Policemen who were drafted to the area appealed to the protesters to vacate the international airport road but they remained adamant.

”Even if we leave the road now, we will come back tomorrow and we won’t stop coming until the stakeholders listen to us and open our campuses,” the protesters told the policemen, insisting that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration must end the strike or they will make the country ungovernable for him.