The Management of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, RUGIPO, Owo, Ondo State
yesterday ordered the closure of the school for two weeks following
protests by students over hike in their school fees.
You can read the post as reported by Vanguard News.
You can read the post as reported by Vanguard News.
The students, yesterday, showed their
displeasure by trooping to Owo‑Benin‑Abuja expressway and the streets in
the town thereby disrupting traffic flow for several hours.
They barricaded the expressway and stopped vehicular movement for several hours while the school property were vandalised.
Vandalised structures included the girls
hostel building, the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) of a new generation
bank, the bank’s signpost and some other billboards.
Following the breakdown of law and order in
the institution, the authorities hurriedly ordered its closure to avoid
the protest from escalating.
Vanguard gathered
that students had on Sunday held a students’ union stakeholders meeting
where they resolved to protest the conditions attached to writing their
examination and a unified test just introduced by the management of the
institution.
Findings by Vanguard indicated
that the Ordinary National Diploma, OND, are now to pay N73,000 instead
of N65,000 while Higher National Diploma, HND, are to pay N90,000
instead of N70,000
The authorities had directed that students
would commence a unified test yesterday (Monday) in the whole
institution with a condition that only students who had paid their fees
would be allowed to write the test.
The protesting students blocked the
institution’s gate as early as 6 a.m. and prevented lecturers and other
staff from entring the premises.
Addressing newsmen, Vice Chairman of the
Joint Campus Committee (JCC) of National Association of Nigerian
Students (NANS), Ondo State chapter, Comrade Olasunkanmi Pelebe, said
the fees are exorbitant.
According to Pelebe, the students of the
institution are paying a lot more than other polytechnics in the
South-West, lamenting that parents of an average student are traders,
artisans, or civil servants who strive very hard to send their wards to
school.