Kayode ShopekanUNIVERSITY of Benin (UNIBEN) students on Tuesday, took to the streets and major highways to express their displeasure with alleged hike of school fee with N20,000 by the institution authority.
The Students were said to have blocked the ever busy Benin- Lagos Expressway by Ugbowo, in protest against the hike in fees.
For hours, vehicular and human movements at Ugbowo and Ekenwan Road campuses were paralysed such that commuters had to look for other routes to navigate their ways to their ed destinations.
The protesting students carried placards bearing inscriptions such as: ‘Federal Uni don turn BOWEN’; ‘UNIBEN no be BOWEN”, “Urgent 20k no be our budget”; “Oppression comes in different forms”; “We didn’t sign for this injustice.” They played solidarity songs with public address sound system.
The students said they were protesting an additional N20,000 to their school fee within two weeks, when the school portal was opened, adding that the same portal had been frequently down thereby denying those who wanted to pay, access to do so.
The students said when the portal finally opened, they were asked to make payment before September 3, after which there will be an additional charge of N10,000.
Immediately after the day, additional N10,000 was added without any prior information to that effect, making the increment N20,000.
“They added N20,000 to our fees within two weeks. And now the PRO is saying anyone that fails to pay before next Saturday would be denied admission, that is, the admission of such students would be withdrawn,” one of the protesting students who did not want to named said.
Reacting to the comment made by the institutions PRO on school fees, the student remarked, “The PRO saying it is a privilege for us to be given admission to study at UNIBEN is wrong! It is not a privilege, it is our rights to study at any school in Nigeria as Nigerians.”
Another student who did not want his name mentioned said the University had been turned to a personal business since the present Vice Chancellor assumed office.
“UNIBEN is no more University of Benin, it is now University of Salami. Lilian Salami is our VC. She runs the school like her personal business,” the student submitted.
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