The students were reportedly protesting a 200 percent increase to their tuition fees.
The University’s Public Relations Officer, Edward Aihevbe, explained in a press statement that the decision to close the institution was reached after the University’s Senate reviewed the student protest.
According to him the university’s senate views the protest as uncalled for and unnecessary, as the students barricaded the Benin-Ekpoma-Auchi highway.
Aihevbe, denying social media reports that two students were shot by security agents, said the students were given until 4 pm to vacate the institution.
“No student was shot. They barricaded the highway and soldiers escorting an army vehicle that was passing the road had to shoot into the air to scare the students away,” he explained.
It was learnt that a truck carrying rice was reportedly set ablaze after the goods were looted by the protesters, just as some of the protesting students reportedly sustained injuries.
A source at the University told Daily Sun that management of the institution was earlier informed of the impending protest, but that it could not mobilize security early enough to neutralize it before the students arrived at the university’s gate.