The Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), Ekiti State, has been shut down until normalcy returns to campus, says the school management.
According to a statement by the Acting Registrar, Mr Daniel Abiodun Adeyemo, management shut the institution to forestall a possible breakdown of law and order that may happen as students have allegedly planned to continue to cripple academic and administrative activities on the campus, with a planned music jamboree on Tuesday.
The enraged students began a protest on Monday morning, demanding to write the ongoing semester exams, in spite of failure on the part of many of them to complete payment of their school fees.
Speaking with newsmen, some of the students said they resolved to protest because earlier appeals made to school management to allow them write exams and complete payment later were rebuffed.
“We had to protest because it appears the school management didn’t want to listen to our plight. 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,” a student, who spoke anonymously, said.
However, another student claimed that some who have completed school fees payments did not support the protest, saying: ”Some of the students protesting 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 money their parents gave them for fees on frivolous things. Instead of them to go back home and plead for the fees, they are here disrupting the peace on campus.”
Reacting to the development, the Acting Registrar said school management had granted three lecture-free days to the aggrieved students to organise with their parents to complete payment of fees, stating that:
“The University Management has noticed with concern the evolving issues which surround the students’ protest as regards the ongoing semester examinations. The management has responded by acceding to most of the demands which have spawned the protests”.
“And as a mark of further goodwill, the Vice Chancellor was billed to hold a meeting with the students’ representatives at 13:00 hours on Tuesday, 15th May, 2018.
“Prior to all this, management had granted a 3-day lecture-free period to allow students organize with their parents and guardians as regards their fees.
“But despite all these measures of goodwill, some of the students have still decided to turn 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 that 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 and only dialogue can resolve a matter such as this.
“Lastly, we apologize to all our law-abiding students who have to contend with the brunt of this episode. The resumption of normal academic activities will be communicated in due course.”
The Acting Registrar also explained that some students were fond of mutilating their exam clearance slips, hence the management’s insistence that students laminate them before entering exam halls.