Students of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, on the platform of Students Solidarity Group Against Students Hike in collaboration with the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, hit the streets on Tuesday morning to protest the increment in tuition fees by the management of the institution.
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The students reconvened a week after the first protest was disrupted by security operatives as colleagues from other universities also joined them in solidarity.
The protesters chanted songs of solidarity and expressed their desire to continue to fight and press the school authorities to reduce the fees.
They staged a peaceful protest on the streets and were accompanied by security operatives of the Nigerian Police Force as well as men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC.
The security operatives barricaded the school gate as heavy security checks were conducted to prevent intruders from entering the school premises.
Some of the students who spoke with Vanguard complained that there was a breach of trust between the school authorities and the students and they will continue to protest until the hike in school fees is overturned.
They alleged that the school authorities lacked accountability and transparency with the way they have treated the issue in recent weeks, especially with their recent official press statements.
They also called on the Federal Government to invest the proceeds from the subsidy removal on education rather than allow any increment in school fees.
The university recently asked students to pay over N190,000 as against the previous regime of a little over N19,000 as fees.
In July, the school authorities announced the hike in tuition fees was announced in July for new and returning undergraduate students as they cited “prevailing economic realities” as the reason for the increment.
Recall that Vanguard reported last week that armed policemen teargassed protesting students of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, who took to the streets to protest the hike in fees by the management of the institution.
The policemen, drawn from many formations in Lagos including the Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), also took over the gate of the university, preventing the protesting students and others from entering the campus and disrupted the planned protest.
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