Wole Balogun, Ado Ekiti

Students of Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, yesterday, protested hike in tuition fees and what they described as poor learning facility in the school.

The students asked the Federal Government to provide more funds to complete some approved projects in the university campuses.

To press home their demand, the students barricaded gates of the school as early as 5am and mounted blockages to prevent anyone from entering the school. They demanded the attention of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Kayode Shoremekun and laid siege to the gates for hours expecting the him.

Shoremekun alleged that findings by his management showed that students who have refused to pay school fees and those barred from being part of the forthcoming examination masterminded the protest.

He also said investigation showed that the students might be protesting delay in completing the main library abandoned by his predecessor.

He said while serious effort have been made to improve the school facility, protocol which have to be followed as demanded by the Ministry of Education has slowed down the process of getting some facility, especially the abandoned main library, in proper shape.

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He assured that the library would be in place in May and noted that management is engaging students representative in dialogue to end the crisis.

He, however, warned that students who failed to pay their fees would not be allowed to take part in the examinations.

Public Relations Officer of the Students Union Government (SUG), Omofoye Adetola, said: “The SUG reached an agreement yesterday night to stage a peaceful protest today. Our demands are that our road in phase 3 to engineering  faculty must be fixed, building of makeshift classrooms in faculties of education, health,  engineering and others approved must start now.  Although the school management has approved the Ikole campus sports complex, its building has not commenced. We want the WiFi connection in both Oye and Ikole campuses to start immediately.

“The management is right on the non-payment of fees but we have been appealing to them to pay promptly and they have been responding well for the past two weeks. We urge the management to review the payment of the fees to assist the students.”

Reacting to the development, Soremekun said only 2,000 out of a population of 17,000 students had paid their school fees for the 2018/2019 session.

He lamented that the students’ failure to pay their school fees ha hindered the university’s desire to meet many of the needs and demands of the school for more effective and enhanced academic and administrative activities.