Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike closed down as students protest hike in school fees

Some Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) students in Abia shut down the institution on Tuesday to protest the tuition fee hike.

The angry students stormed different halls in the university. They chased out students taking their first semester examinations, damaging glasses and other property at the university Senate Building, the secretariat of the Students Union Government, the library, the microfinance bank, the main gate and others.

The aggrieved students sang anti-management songs such as ‘VC Iwe, reverse our school fees’, ‘Say no to extortion’, and ‘Allow us to write our examinations’.

They also barricaded the Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene Road, specifically at the university main gate, thereby disrupting vehicular movement.

Shop owners on the highway quickly closed their shops for fear of protesters attacking them.

It took the intervention of the police to disperse the protesters with tear gas and gunshots into the air.

Some of the students who spoke on the condition of anonymity said they were protesting against the insensitivity of the vice-chancellor, Maduebibisi Iwe, and his management of the students’ plight.

“We started our first semester examination yesterday (Monday) and the vice chancellor came to the hall and sent out those who have not paid their school fees.

“They increased our school fees twice in 2023; some of us were paying about N50,000, but it is now between N120,000 and N150,000. The vice chancellor insisted that students must pay it at once, even when we begged them to allow us to pay in two instalments for the two semesters,’’ one of the protesters said.

Another student said, “Some of us were stopped from writing the examination because our names were yet to appear after doing our biometrics.

“The management introduced the compulsory bio-data for students this semester, and it is still ongoing, but they said that no student will write an examination without it.”

Some protesting students, who said they were final year students, complained that the management’s actions would make it impossible for them to graduate with their set.

Efforts to speak with the SUG president, Emmanuel Chjioke, failed as neither he nor his executive members could be seen or reached.

Also, the vice-chancellor could not be reached for comments.

(NAN)