It has been a bloody and violent protest in University of Port Harcourt over no-tuition-fee no-examination policy recently introduced by the University management. This protest has already claimed lives and wreaked havoc.
The management of the university had in 2015 adopted a policy which made tuition fee a prerequisite for student’s participation in examination, a policy which compelled defaulting students to repeat an entire academic session.
The protest, which initially started on a peaceful note, later turned violent with the students in their hundreds, destroying school property.
The demanded the withdrawal of the policy, which they argued, was unfair to poor students.
The students blocked the East-West inter-state highway, causing heavy vehicular gridlock with the Police maintaining presence to forestall a possible breakdown of law and order.
They carried placards with inscriptions: UNIPORT management “Stop exploiting students”, “Prof. Ndowa Lale (Vice Chancellor) must go”, “N45,000 tuition fees: highest among federal-owned universities”, among others.
One of the protesting students, who pleaded anonymity, told NAN they (students) took to the streets to disrupt examinations slated to begin April 11.
“The management placed a deadline for school fees payment and are now trying to enforce it before the exams.
“This action by UNIPORT to bar poor students who had defiled all odds to study and become responsible citizens to society is draconian and wicked.
“We will resist this attempt by the university management to victimise students whose parents could not immediately afford UNIPORT’s exorbitant tuition fees,” the student said.
See photos of some of the brutal scenes :
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