According to report, undergraduate students of the Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko (AAUA), Ondo state have gone to the streets in order to protest the increase in their tuition fee, Sahara Reporters learned on Monday.
The protesting students have marched through the well-known Oba Adesida road to Alagbaka in Akure, the Ondo State capital, which has caused traffic on the busy road.
The students were armed placards in their hands bearing numerous inscriptions as they all chanted their solidarity songs in their procession, which stopped commercial activities in Akure.
The students said that the tuition fee increase of 500% was not acceptable as their parents would not be able to afford the fee.
Iyabo Adebimbe, who was one of the protesting students, Iyabo lamented the geometrical increase in the tuition fee, arguing that many female students may considered crime or prostitution as an option due to the inability of their parents to pay their fee.
“Before, we (students) were paying between N25, 000 and N30, 000 but now it has been increased to N120, 000 and 180, 000 which is just too much to bear for us and our parents.
“This increment shows that the state government being led by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu wants us to result into prostitution and other forms of crime which could destroy our future. I learnt my of our colleagues are already dropping out of the system because they can’t afford it”, She said.
The management of the Adekunle Ajasin University released the tuition fees last week for both the new and returning students of the school for the 2017/2018 academic sessions with an increase of over 500%.
Ondo State House of Assembly has said on Monday that it has nothing to do with the increase in tuition fee has announced by the Governing Council of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, saying the council did not carry the state legislature along before taking the decision.
Speaking with journalists on the development, Mr. Fatal Olotu, the Chairman House Committee on Information, has enjoined the protesting students to be calm while the Assembly is forging ahead for a decision that would favour them.
He said,
” We dissociate ourselves from the proposed new fees. We have not carried along, we are not aware of the new fees. All the announcement on the new fees would be revisited. ”
Also, the speaker of the House, Mr. Bamidele Oloyeloogun, said since the governing council failed to report to the House Committee on Tertiary Institutions, the Assembly would not support the increment.
