THE MANAGEMENT of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, has announced an indefinite closure of the institution, following Tuesday’s violent protest by the students over ‘geometric hike’ in tuition and other fees.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Maduebibisi Iwe, in a statement issued in the aftermath of the protest, ordered the students to vacate the university premises with immediate effect. The statement said the closure was to safeguard lives and property on campus.
“This is to notify the public that the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia woke up to experience the violation of the long existing peace of the university this morning. Miscreants took over the university, chasing and pursuing the Vice Chancellor, damaging his official vehicle and those of his officials.
“They were claiming that they were not allowed to take their first semester examinations owing to their failure to pay their charges. The university’s record shows that 70 per cent of the students had paid their charges and were peacefully taking their examinations.
“More than 2,000 were in the queue to pay and register their courses before the miscreants and hoodlums took the stage to cause trouble and disrupt the long-standing peace of the university,” the Vice Chancellor’s statement reads in part:
NAN reports that a large number of students went on rampage on campus over an alleged management’s refusal to allow those who had yet to pay their fees to write the ongoing first semester examinations.
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NAN’s correspondent, who visited the university, gathered that the angry students, who were in their numbers, stormed different halls in the university and chased out students writing their first semester examinations.
NAN correspondent further observed that the protesters also destroyed the glasses and other property at the university Senate Building, secretariat of the Students Union Government (SUG), library, microfinance bank, main gate and others.
The aggrieved students sang anti-management songs such as “VC Iwe, reverse our school fees”, “Say no to extortion,” “Allow us to write our examinations,” among others.
They also barricaded the Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene Road, specifically at the university’s main gate, thereby disrupting vehicular movement.
Shop owners on the highway quickly closed their shops for fear of being attacked by the protesters.
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 to NAN on the condition of anonymity, said they were protesting against the insensitivity of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Maduebibisi Iwe, and his management towards the plight of the students.
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“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 schools fees.
“They increased our schools 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 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 examination without it,” he said.
NAN reports that some of them, who said that they were final year students, complained that the action of the management would make it impossible for them to graduate with their set.
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Efforts to speak with the SUG President, Emmanuel Chjioke, failed as neither him nor his executive members could be seen or reached.
Also, the Vice Chancellor, Iwe could not be reached, as he was not in the office as at the time of visit, and he did not respond to calls put across to him.
The Deputy Vice Chancellors, Academics and Administration, as well as the school Public Relations Officer could not be reached for comment and their offices were under lock and key.
