• Insist VC must go

Students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) will begin a fresh round of protest today over hike in school fees.

They had accused the school authorities of jacking up their fees astronomically last week.

The protest is a continuation of the violent one they embarked on, on Saturday when they sacked the university town and descended on both the Vice-Chancellor’s and the Pro-Chancellor’s Lodges where over 22 cars and buses were damaged.

They also destroyed window glasses at the Vice- Chancellor’s Lodge, just as they did at the pro-chancellor’s residence being temporarily used by the VC.

Some of the students added a comic relief to the tragic situation when they informed our reporter that they also took away a she-goat from the lodge.

Apart from taking over the town after sacking all the principal officers of the university, including the librarian, who escaped from the Vice-Chancellor’s Lodge by scaling the high fence with the help of a securityman, they defied security operatives and travelled about five kilometres to the Enugu- Benue highway where they held up vehicular and human traffic for over three hours.

The students were protesting the alleged fee hike introduced by the administration of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Bartholomew Okolo, whom they accused of ignoring their entreaties that the situation be reversed, or at least be mitigated.

The protests had started last Thursday at the university secondary school where N60,000 levy was reportedly imposed on each student without any explanation, a ploy seen by parents as the introduction of a 100 per cent increase in fees.

Three female students, who spoke to the Nigerian Compass in front of the Queen of the Rosary College, Enugu Road, Nsukka, explained that the situation had become unbearable as the vice-chancellor was insisting that their fees allegedly increased by about 300 per cent would not be reduced. One of them, who said she is a second year student of Sociology, stated that “for this running session, I have paid N30,000 but what the VC is introducing is that we will now pay N90,000. He has increased hostel accommodation from N9,000 to N35,000 for the female students.” 

 Yet, another student, who said he is in his final year (names withheld), explained that apart from the high fees, “the VC has also proposed an increase in convocation fee paid by graduating students from N4,000 or N6,000 to N40,000. Can you imagine that?
For the incoming fresh students, it has been a tale of woes.

While they initially took some forms at N10,000 each, those admitted will pay an acceptance fee of N25,000 each, that is up from N6,000 fee introduced by the immediate past administration.
Yet, they are to pay fees allegedly amounting to N120,000.

 At the height of the rampage, some of the protesters, at Ede-Oballa town near Nsukka, disarmed two policemen and continued firing their guns until the ammunition were exhausted.

A police source told our reporter at Opi Junction on the expressway that a policeman was shot on the arm in the process of trying to disarm him.

A female student, who was reportedly shot, met her cruel fate when the police earlier confronted the protesters within the university premises.

Details of her identities were not immediately available.

It took the intervention of a unit commander of the mobile police, Mr. Ola Ehindero, who was drafted in from Enugu, to get the students to vacate the highway at noon after the students arrested and taken away by the police were released.