Police Arrest 2 Nigerians In Bickford's

Two Nigerian students were arrested in Hayes Bickford Saturday night and charged with distrubing the peace when they refused to leave the restaurant at the manager's request.

Uchenna C. Nwosu '64 said that he and Femi Okurounmu '63, a graduate student at M.I.T., refused to leave the cafeteria because the manager insisted on serving them on a dirty tray. When the students complained about the tray, the manager, according to Nwosu, told them "You don't get such good things in your home country."

The students continued to seek a clean tray and argued that they were members of the public and entitled to good service. According to Nwosu, the manager retorted, "You don't belong to the public." The manager then withdrew the tray, Nwosu said, and told the students he would serve them only on the tray already offered them.

The students called the police to ask for assistance, Nwosu said. When six policeman arrived shortly thereafter, an officer asked the manager whether he wished to serve the students. When the manager replied that he did not, the students were ordered to leave.

According to Nwosu, he and Okurounmu were arrested when they continued to maintain that they had a right to be served.

Nwosu said they were jailed overnight and were not allowed to call anyone until Sunday morning. A roomate finally bailed them out.

University Hires Counsel

The University has arranged to have George Lordan, a Cambridge lawyer, defend the students. "We wanted to get the top trial lawyer in the area," Dean Watson said yesterday. "These students have certain rights, and we want to see that they are respected."

The trial, set for last Monday, was postponed until June 1 because it conflicted with the students' exams.

A police spokesman, patrolman Herbert E. Halliday, said last night that a restaurant has the right to refuse service to any customer without having to explain its refusal. The students were lucky not to have been charged with "disturbing a public assembly," Halliday said. He denied that the students had not been allowed to make a phone call from jail.