The University of Uyo in Akwa Ibom state, South south Nigeria has been closed down following students protest over insufficient lecture venues and increase in transport charges from the town campus to its permanent site.
Trouble started on Wednesday afternoon when the students went on peaceful protest asking the university authorities to reverse its decision of increasing the transportation fare from the town campus to its permanent site at Nsukara Offot in the outskirts of Uyo from N100 to N200 per student per day.
Trouble started on Wednesday afternoon when the students went on peaceful protest asking the university authorities to reverse its decision of increasing the transportation fare from the town campus to its permanent site at Nsukara Offot in the outskirts of Uyo from N100 to N200 per student per day.
A resident of the school community said the students, mainly of Science and Engineering faculties, went on rampage in protest against the relocation of the Science Faculty from the school’s temporary site along Ikpa Road to the permanent site.
The new site lacks enough infrastructures to accommodate the relocating Science students, and the Engineering students who had moved in earlier, leading to infrequent confrontation.
The Engineering students are said to occasionally bar the Science students from using the limited lecture rooms and school shuttle buses between the old and new campuses, about 10 kilometres apart. But for the timely intervention of a team of police officers, the protest which spilled into the street would have degenerated into violence. While the protest was on, the university senate was holding an emergency meeting over the issue.
The Vice Chancellor, Comfort Ekpo could not be reached for comments on the protest but her office and the town campus main gate were in flames at the time of filing this report. The Co-ordinator of Peace on Campus Initiative, Oliver Cromwell said his organisation was working with security agencies to calm the situation.
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