OAU students protest hike in fees •Halt socio-economic activities

Tuesday, when students of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), trooped out in their thousands to protest the new fee regime introduced by the management of their institution.

Social and economic activities within and outside the campus were halted as students filed out to denounce what they termed the obnoxious increment in the tuition fess by the authorities of the university.

Led by the President-elect of the Student Union Government (SUG), Comrade Isaac Ibikunle, the students displayed various placards bearing inscriptions such as “OAU Students Say No To Increment”, Omole Restore the Old Tuition Fees”, “Omole You Enjoyed Free Education, Why Killing it”, “The Poor Deserves Quality Education Too”.

Similarly, the post graduate students of the university were not left out in the protest as they joined in the protest to solidarise with their undergraduates counterparts.

The students had earlier converged at the school’s Anglomoz car park around 8:00am before they marched out to Oduduwa University, Ile-Ife, along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, where they barricaded the roads with tyres and woods.

The development culminated in traffic gridlock along the expressway, leading to Ilesa and Ife, as motorists and travellers along the route were stranded for about two hours while the protesting students were busy sensitising them on the reason behind the protest.

Addressing the protesting students, the SUG president-elect, Ibikunle, disclosed that the management had reduced the increased fee by N17,000 during a meeting with them yesterday but noted that the Vice Chancellor, Professor Omole, had said he would not succumb to total reversal.

According to him, “the management had increased the tuition from N17,000 to about N100,000 apart from N20,000 acceptance and accommodation fees. We have exhausted all peaceful means, we have consulted union bodies like ASUU, NASU and even the alumni body of the institution to help us appeal to the management to reverse the fee but to no avail.

- Tribune