One
of the students identified as Peter Ofurun, who was said to have been hit by a
bullet from a policeman, died instantly.
Another
student also hit by a bullet was rushed to the hospital, even as sources
claimed that she died on the way to the hospital.
The
UNIPORT students’ protest had halted academic and administrative activities in
the institution as they demanded that the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Sunday Lale,
should address them and reverse the policy
Ofurun
was a student in the Faculty of Management Science before he met his untimely
death. His corpse was later taken to the African Independent Television station
in Port Harcourt.
Sources
told our correspondents that the two students were hit by the bullets when
policemen opened fire to disperse the protesting students from the busy
East-West road they had occupied for hours.
However,
the state Police Public Officer, Mr. Ahmad Muhammad, said that no life was lost during the protest.
“No
reported case of loss of life throughout the students’ protest. What the police
did was just the discharge of their mandate of restoring normalcy and
orderliness in the university,” Muhammad said.
The
students’ presence on the East-West Road had caused a gridlock as travellers
waited in vain for the students to disperse for them to continue with their
journey.
An
armoured personnel carrier that was moving close to the institution to ensure
that calm returned was also trapped in the traffic.
It
was gathered that the students had come out from their hostels at about 4.30am
to express their grievances over the stance of the UNIPORT management to stop
them from taking their first semester examinations because of non-payment of
the fees.
It
was gathered that the UNIPORT management had designed a policy that stopped
students, who had yet to pay their school fees, from taking their exams.
Affected
students, according to a source, will also be made to carry over the courses.
But the protesting students described the policy as a form of victimisation,
adding that the dwindling economy of the nation was affecting them as they were
unable to pay their fees immediately.
One
of the placards of the protesting students read, ‘Say No to No School Fees, No
Examinations.’
“We
have pleaded with the management of our school on several occasions to extend
the deadline for the payment of the school fees to second semester, but they
refused.
“We
will prefer the school to be shut down until the management accepts our
position on this matter. We are going to continue with our protest until the
vice- chancellor comes down here to address us,” one of the leaders of the
protesters said.
Another
protester, the President, Edo State Students in UNIPORT, Mr. Andrew Osose,
said, “…We are doing this because of the economic meltdown, which the country
is into. There are students whose parents just lost their jobs. There are those
whose parents have not been paid salaries for months by the government. How
would they be able to pay? We know the nature of our economy now; how would
students meet up to pay?
“Most
of the lecturers in the senate that are making this policy did not go to school
with their own money. They did not come from rich background, but they have all
forgotten their root. They want the students to pay by fire by force.”
Reacting,
the Deputy Registrar, Information of UNIPORT, Dr. William Wodi, explained that
the protest was not about increase in fees, but about a few students, who
wanted to take exams without paying the N45,000 school fee.
Wodi
said that while 98 per cent of students had paid and ready to sit for the
exams, the two per cent remaining refused to pay, even after extending the
deadline on five occasions.
Maintaining
that the fee was not new to the students, Wodi added that the immediate past
administration had directed that no university should charge beyond N45,000 as
fee.
The
UNIPORT spokesman, who said the first semester examination for the 2015/2016
academic session would no longer begin on Monday (yesterday) as scheduled, warned
that those who failed to pay their fees would carry their courses over.
“We
have continued to extend the deadline for the payment of the fees. The deadline
was first moved from February 12, 2016 to March 11 and to March 30.
“We
moved it again from March 30 to April 5th and now to April 7th and we said we
are no longer moving it further. But they are saying that the economy is hard,”
he said.
“…We
are not expelling students; we are only saying that those who fail to pay will
not be part of the exam and they are carrying the course over,” he added.
Meanwhile,
the Senate of the university has shut down the institution with immediate
effect.
Wodi,
who made this announcement through a text message sent on Monday said, “Senate has shut down the university with
immediate effect.
“All
students have been directed to vacate their hostel accommodation before 6pm
today (Monday). Students’ union and all their affiliate bodies have been
suspended with immediate effect. The closure will last for one month.”
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