TWO NIGERIAN representatives who flew in from Trinidad are among a team that includes pan-Africanists and attorneys-at-law David Commissiong and Robert “Bobby” Morris meeting with 90 upset Nigerian students and their coordinator at Casa Grande.
One of the Nigerian representatives who arrived from Trinidad today after reading about the plight of the students on the NATION’s website said the students should have been learning not being confronted by police and the military.
“I find it very, very embarrassing where a situation like this occurs where students should be here learning and have to encounter the police and military. I can’t comprehend that and I feel that is an excessive use of force and it should not go without questioning,” the man said.
The Nigerians students are here for hospitality studies at the Barbados Community College but on Monday spoke out about their horrible experience at the Casa Grande Hotel. They complained about the food, accommodation and everyday amenities including water to take a bath.
Their plight was first carried in Tuesday’s DAILY NATION and again today with their accounts and photographs of police and soldiers on the premises of the hotel.
Organiser of the programme Barbadian Donna St Hill who lives in Nigeria had accused some of the students of being volatile and saying a malfunctioning air conditioner was not a reason for “insurrection” or threats of arson.
She said that the original accommodation was at Infinity On The Beach but because of delays since June when the students were first scheduled to arrive, the country was completely booked by the time they arrived this past week. Casa Grande was the last resort.
But the Nigerian representative out of Trinidad where the students were staying prior to their arrival here said that he wanted to find out what is going on.
“I just came to find out what is going on. I read about it in the NATION,” he said.
Commissiong a local crusader for social justice said the meeting was to hopefully find a suitable arrangement for accommodation. He said that with the majority of the students clamouring for better accommodation the possibility exists that they might have to move. (AC)
