Since January 2016, there have been a lot of protests in tertiary institutions, some resulted in drastic disruptions to the academic calendars, destruction of school properties, many schools were shut down and other students were arrested and prosecuted. In some extreme cases, some students were rusticated while some died in the process.
In some extreme cases, many students were rusticated while some died in the process of fighting for ‘ALL’. Other Protests went peacefully in some schools with no traces of violence, but here are 5 Deadly Students Protest In 2016:
YABATECH Students Protest Death Of Colleague
Oluwabukola Charity Dazan, a student of the Yabatech College of Education, Department of Office Technology and Management (OTM) died on Wednesday, February 11, 2016. It was noted that the student who died few weeks to her graduation was due to absolute neglect on the part of officials at the institution’s Medical Centre. The 27-year-old, only child of her parents finished writing a practical examination when she suddenly fell ill and died.
After her death, the angry students who were infuriated by the action of the school management, denied all entry into the institution as the campus gates were locked by aggrieved students, who sang solidarity songs and displayed placards that read: “Injustice to one is injustice to all”, “This Nonsense Must Stop”, in a protest to register their grievances concerning the death of their colleague. The school management ordered all students to vacate the institution till further notice.
UNILAG Students Protest Poor Welfare Conditions
On Wednesday, April 6, 2016, the University of Lagos (UNILAG) students led by the students’ union leaders started a crucial peaceful protest to decry the management’s obvious nonchalance and uncaring attitude towards the terrible living conditions on campus.
As the protest grow wider, the authorities announced the indefinite closure of the campus on Friday, April 8 while all the students were given just a few hours to pack up and leave. When students insisted they were not leaving, heavily armed police were brought in to effect the closure.
The management later announced the suspension of 17 students’ union leaders due to what they stated as ”specific acts of misconduct during the protest for which they were punished include: Locking the university gates, locking staff inside the Student Affairs Office, harassing lecturers and disrupting lectures and/or examination, assaulting and damaging the vehicle of a visitor and a student, invading the premises of UNILAG Ventures.
UNIPORT Protest Turns Bloody Over Varsity’s New Tuition Fee Policy
On the 11th of April, students of the of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), said ‘NO’ to the ‘no tuition fee, no examination policy’ by the university management. The protest, which initially started on a peaceful note, later turned violent.
The students blocked all entry points into the institution, 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. In the process to maintain peace and order, the police allegedly opened fire, killing one Peter Ofurum, a final year student in the faculty of Management Science.
Rustication Of 500L Student: UI Students Protest, DEFY Closure, Cooks Outside School Gate
In April, the students of the University of Ibadan, after a protest ignored the school management in an order to vacate the school halls of residence for staging a peaceful protest against the rustication of their colleague.
Tunji Epketi Micheal, a 500L student of the Department of Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Technology and a resident of Independence Hall was rusticated for participating in one of the halls over the poor state of electric and water supply. The aggrieved students who were all seen chanting songs of solidarity, cooked outside the school gate and also posted several pictures of their cooking session on the social media.
FUNAAB Black Thursday
It all started on the 17th of August, 2016 in the Adejoke hostel in Isolu where some students of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) were robbed at gunpoint. The incident infuriated the students who claimed they had been left to their fate by the institution’s management, the students’ protest followed this attack.
As early as 6.am, the aggrieved students paralysed academic and administrative activities in the institution in a peaceful protest over the university management’s “insensitivity” to rampant robbery attacks on their colleagues living outside the campus, until a police team arrived at the scene. A 100-level student of Forestry and Wildlife, identified as Taiwo Abisoye, was allegedly fired by a policeman but miraculously responded to treatment.
