•Students insist on writing exams without paying fees
Authorities of the Federal University at Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) in Ekiti State have ordered an immediate closure of the institution to prevent a likely breakdown of law and order following the directive that the students must complete payment of their fees before writing examinations.
In a statement yesterday, FUOYE’s Acting Registrar Daniel Adeyemo said the university was shut down over an intelligence report that the students planned to cripple administrative and academic activities under the guise of a “musical jamboree”.
The students started the protest on Monday, insisting that they be allowed to write their semester examinations, despite the fact that majority of them had not paid their fees.
Some of the students told The Nation that they embarked on the protest because the university management rebuffed their entreaties that they be allowed to sit for their examinations and complete payment later.
A student, who craved anonymity, said: “We had to protest because it appeared the school management didn’t want to listen to us.
“Also, some administrative officers were preventing many of us, who had completed payment and had clearance slips, from writing, simply because they have not laminated the slips.”
Another student, who did not support the protest, said: “Some of the protesters are not even real students of the university.
“You won’t believe that some of these students, who are disrupting academic activities on campus, had spent the fees their parents gave them on frivolous things.
“Instead of them to go back home and plead for the fees, they are here disrupting the peace on campus.”
Adeyemo said the management had given three free lecture days for the aggrieved students to to complete payment of their fees.
He said: “The university management has noticed with concern the evolving issues surrounding the students’ protest as regards the ongoing semester examinations. The management has responded by acceding to most of the demands which spawned the protests.
“As a mark of further goodwill, the vice chancellor was billed to hold a meeting with the students’ representatives at 13:00 hours (1 p.m) on May 15 (yesterday).
“Prior to all these, management had granted a three-day lecture-free period to allow students organise with their parents and guardians as regards their fees.
“But despite all these measures of goodwill, some of the students still turned the university into a theatre for disco music and other non-academic activities, which have the potential to cause a breakdown of law and order.
“It is against this background the university has been shut down until normalcy is restored to campus. Please, be informed that the university management is not insensitive to the plight of students who are yet to fully pay their fees; only dialogue can resolve a matter such as this.
“Lastly, we apologise to all our law-abiding students who are having to contend with the brunt of this episode. The resumption of normal academic activities will be communicated in due course.”
Adeyemo said some students were fond of mutilating their examination clearance slips, hence the reason the management insisted that they laminate them before entering examination halls.