Protests against a prolonged strike by students of the Plateau State Polytechnic at the Jos campus turned bloody as operatives of the Joint Task Force (JTF) opened live rounds on the students, killing one and injuring scores on Monday.

The students were shelled by soldiers seeking to forcefully disperse the gathering.

Student Union Government President, Moses Williams Voh, who confirmed this incident to Peoples Gazette on Monday, said one student was killed, while scores of unspecified number of students were badly injured.

“Right now we are at the hospital taking statistics of students injured. One student is already dead and we have a lot of casualties.

“We are trying to gather the number of injured students today,” Mr Voh said in a telephone call with The Gazette.

He added, “The Joint military task force was responsible for this. I even went to tell them to allow us to address the students but they kept beating students and as I speak they are still around.”

The SUG president further explained that students were protesting a prolonged strike that has delayed academic activities for close to three years.

“As it is, what really happened today was that we have our final year exam today. Students have been held by prolonged strikes and COVID-19 pandemic. Others have stayed for about three years now in the polytechnic.

“We are supposed to start our final year exam today only to discover that there is a strike declared by the Joint Union of the Academic Staff of about seven high institutions in Plateau State. It is as a result that the student’s started the protest,” Mr Voh said.

Another student, Junah Celestina Gambo, said “there was a lot of shooting this morning. They injured students to the extent that soldiers entered the school and were still shooting.

“A student of the marketing department was shot dead. Some of them were injured and were taken to school clinics,” she added.

Police spokesperson for Plateau State Command, Gabriel Ogaba, could not be reached immediately for comments on the incident.