Polytechnic students on rampage.
The Rufus Giwa Polytechnic Owo (RUGIPO) was on Tuesday closed down for two weeks following a students’ protest at the institution over high tuition.
The Rector of the Ondo State owned institution, Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun, told SaharaReporters in a phone interview that the school will remain closed until the authorities have reviewed the issues that eventually led to the protest.
"We have closed down the school for two weeks. Our plan is to assess the whole situation, and put some strategies in place to ensure that when we call back the students, there won't be a problem," he said.
Prof.Ajibefun further stated that the Monday protest organized by the students was initially peaceful but was later hijacked by hoodlums who took advantage of the situation to inflict injuries on innocent passersby and travelers.
He added that the institution will definitely expose the bad eggs among the students when the institution reopens in two weeks.
"By the time we call them back, we would have put strategies in place to weed out the criminal elements among them,” he said, stressing that those who are not real students will be prevented from mixing up with the real students".
The protesting students had early yesterday disrupted vehicular activities for several hours on the Akure-Benin-Abuja road to register their displeasure over a new policy that only students who have paid the new fee structure would be allowed to write a unified test.
Under the new policy, full time students who are also indigenes are to pay over N60,000, while non-indigenes will pay over N70,000. Newly-admitted students are expected to pay over N90,000.
Our correspondent found that during the protest, a part of the female hostel building was damaged. A Skye Bank Automated Teller Machine (ATM) on the campus was also destroyed.
A management source told our correspondent that the students would pay for damages, saying that was the first decision reached by the Governing Board of the school earlier on Tuesday in Akure.