OAU students protest hike in tuition fees, block access to campus

Students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife, on Tuesday, staged a protest against the hike in school fees.

The protesting students, according to information made available to newsmen are demanding a 50 per cent reduction in the new charges.

The students who urged the Federal Government to allocate the funds from subsidy removal towards education instead of allowing an increase in school fees called for the implementation of the original proposed instalment payment the Vice Chancellor of the university promised.

It was also gathered, the students shut the institution’s main gate, blocking access to the university to vehicles.

As a result, students, staff, and other university stakeholders were stranded at the campus gate on Tuesday morning.

Newsmen noted that the protest was called after the student union congress on Monday, October 2, 2023.

Answering demands of the students on instalment payment, the Director of ICT representing the Vice-Chancellor, Kanmi Adewara, said it was not activated earlier because of staff shortage.

“The ICT centre of the school has a low number of staff at the moment due to the current ‘Japa’ wave, as this has caused the process of Post UTME examination to be slow therefore leading to a slow process of activating the instalment payment on the portal.

“I promise that the instalment payment would be activated before the close of work today,” he said.