UNILAG NOW MAULAG STUDENT BLOCK 3RD MAINLAND BRIDGE

University of Lagos students protesting the renaming of the foremost institution as Moshood Abiola University on Wednesday morning blocked the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos.

The students marched from their main campus at Akoka, Yaba through Herbert Macaulay Street to the Adekunle link on the bridge and used Bus Rapid Transit buses to block the busy highway.

They are demanding the reversion to the original name of the university.
Social media was abuzz with rumours that a pregnant woman went into labour in the traffic on the bridge.
The protest jammed roads leading to the Third Mainland Bridge as well as the bridge itself.

The UNILAG Senate immediately summoned a meeting of top officials of the institution to deliberate on the situation.

There were also rumours that the university might be shut down for two weeks to allow tempers cool and give room for more consultations.

The students had marched through some streets near the campus on Tuesday in protest at the renaming of the institution.

The university was renamed by President Goodluck Jonathan in his 50-minute his Democracy Day address to Nigerians on Tuesday.

His announcement of the name change did not go down well with the students, who felt Jonathan should have named another national monument after Abiola.

Although they said they had nothing against Abiola, who died on July 7, 1998 while fighting to validate his June 12, 1993 presidential mandate, they said UNILAG was not the most appropriate institution to be named after the late politician.