500 students protest in Kwara

Students of the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, studying at the Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin Outreach Centre, protested on Thursday in Ilorin, paralysing academic activities in the college. The college, an affiliate of the university, runs the latter’s sandwich and regular degree programmes.
The protesting students, numbering about 500, barricaded the two gates of the school and prevented people and vehicles from entering or exiting the college.
The protest also disrupted free flow of traffic in the adjoining streets to the school.
The protesters made bonfires in front of the college gates and disrupted ongoing first semester examinations of the NCE students of the college.
They chanted war songs and displayed placards expressing their grievances and demands.
The students, who claimed to be 2012 graduates of the institution, said they had not received their results to enable them to participate in the forthcoming National Youth Service Corps programme.
One of the protesters and a former student leader, Muritala Suleiman, said, “We have not received our results three months after we finished examinations last July.  The cause of disagreement is that school management lied that it was not indebted to the university. But we eventually found out that the college owed the university N138m and they just posted N15m.
“The university insisted that the college must defray all its indebtedness before our results would be released. Students did not default in the payment of their fees, which was N80, 000 each for the regular undergraduates.
“We want the college to sort out itself with the university so that we will be mobilised for the NYSC. Anything short of that will incur the wrath of students. Today’s demonstration is peaceful but subsequent ones might not be peaceful.”
However, the college acting Provost, Dr. Gabriel Ajiboye, advised the students to be patient, adding the college was addressing their grievances.
Ajiboye, who confirmed that the college owed the university, said there was an understanding between the instutions.
He stated that the college had an understanding of a certain amount of money it should be paying to the university based on the number of students it admitted.