All hell was let loose in Akure, Ondo State capital on Tuesday as irate students paralysed economic activities in the city over what they termed irational increase in tertiary institutions’ school fees in the state. The Students across various institutions in Ondo State staged a protest demanding the reduction of their school fees.
The students majorly from the Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko(AAUA) and Ondo State University of Science and Technology(OSUSTECH) Okitipupa were all over the popular Oba Adesida Road in Akure, the state capital.
The two institutions had been shut since April following series of protests on campus by the students.
Vehicular movement and commercial activities were paralyzed for hours in Akure metropolis during the protest as some of the students were seen playing football along the road, while others sang solidarity songs.
The students carried different placards with inscription such as; ‘No Reduction,No Resumption’; ‘Akeredolu Reduce or Resign’; Education Must Be Free’; ‘ Say No To N250,000 ‘
Speaking with newsmen during the protest, Samuel Adesomoju, the students union president of AAUA, said the protest would continue until Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu reduces the fees.
Adesomoju maintained that the current fees of N250,000, which was increased last year, has not brought any infrastructural development to institutions in the state.
” We are here this morning to make our demand known once again.
” We are telling Governor Akeredolu that our school fees must be reduced now because there will be no resumption if the fees are not reduced.
” It is our right to have education but the governor is gradually taking it away from us with his policies.
” If the governor wants to generate revenue, he should look elsewhere not our schools.
” We are sending him a clear message today that,we will not leave this road until he reduce the fees and he should not have in mind to open the schools without reduction. We are going to resist it.
” You can see we are here but not the governor’s office because he(Akeredolu) has said he will flush us out if we dare protest.”
Also speaking, a former NANS JCC chairman, Kowe Odunayo, berated the governor for the increased in school fees, adding that they would resist all means by the government to commercialize education in the state.
His words: ” Education is our right and we are here fighting for it. We want to put it to Governor Akeredolu that if he does not reduce the fees, there will not b reduction, he should know that.
” We read during his time in the university, if their chicken was not enough, they fought for chicken not school fees. Unfortunately,these set of people who enjoyed those things then cannot provide education.”
Addressing the protesting students in his palace, the Deji of Akure, Oba Ogunlade Aladetoyinbo commended the students for conducting themselves in a peaceful manner during the protest.
He said education was their right and must be made affordable to everyone in the society no matter the financial situations in the country.
The monarch, who spoke through his Chief of Staff, Prince Toyin Aladetoyinbo, assured the students that he would take their grievances to the governor towards reducing the school fees.
