Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) in Oyo State, shut down the host communities, Ogbomoso and Osogbo, capital of Osun State, on Wednesday, over new tuition fees.
In the new tuition regime, signed by the institution’s Registrar, J. A. Agboola, with effect from 2018/2019 academic session, which was announced on Monday, indigene students of the owner states (Oyo and Osun) will pay N200,000 per session while non-indigenes will pay N250,000.
The October 15 was addressed to all students and marked REG/ADM.38.
Prior to the new tuition regime, as gathered, students of Oyo and Osun states origin paid N63,500 per session, while non-indigenes paid N72, 500.
The present 100 level students paid N120,000 for indigenes and N150,000 for non-indigenes as part of the resolution of the institution after the university strike that lasted for months last year.
The protesters carried placards with various inscriptions such as ‘N65,000 to N250,000 cannot work,’ ‘Save Ladokite,’ Education is our rights, and we say no to hike in tuition fees’.
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The protest in Ogbomoso was led by the Students’ Union Government (SUG) President, Abiodun Oluwaseun.
The protesters reportedly locked all the school’s gates, barricaded the Ogbomoso-Ilorin Road, made bonfire on the road, and prevented travellers, either coming from Ilorin to Ogbomoso or Ogbomoso to Ilorin, in Kwara State, passage for several hours.
They threatened to remain there until the school reversed the fees.
Chairman of Save Education and Reopen LAUTECH Students Coalition, Israel Fawole, was among the students who led the protest in Osogbo.
Majority of the protesters in Osogbo were said to have come mainly from the College of Health Sciences of the university in Osogbo.
The SUG President, Abiodun Oluwaseun, described the hike in fees as laughable .