The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has said that the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Oye Ekiti, Prof. Kayode Soremekun, should be ready to face its wrath if he refused to reduce what it termed, “satanic increase” of some fees payable by students of the university.
NANS said it “condemns in its entirety, the arbitrary increase in some sundry fees by the authority of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti, Ekiti State; saying the alleged increase “is a total show of insensitivity by the Vice-Chancellor and his team.”
NANS alleged that acceptance fee had been increased from N40,000 to N50,000, while medical fee that used to be N4,500 had been hiked up to N10,000.
According to to the students’ leaders, the sundry fee is now above N120,000, while the cost of hostel has gone beyond N50,000; adding that “other exorbitant fees will sum up to N30,000.”
A statement signed by the National Public Relations Officer of NANS, Azeez Adeyemi, and made available to DAILY POST on Saturday said it was disheartening that the university could still increase fees without taking into cognisance the economic condition of the country.
“It is very disheartening that the university management can still have the audacity to increase all sorts of fees, considering the economic situation of the country and that of our parents in particular,” he said.
The students body called for the cancellation of the purported increase in fees saying, “We hereby call on the management of Federal University Oye Ekiti to as a matter of urgency, cancel this unreasonable increase.
“We call on the Federal Ministry of Education, through the National Universities Commission, to call the Vice-Chancellor and the management to order; while we equally enjoin the Federal Government to, with immediate effect, constitute a high level panel with men of good character to probe the projects executed (completed or ongoing) by the present management of FUOYE, considering all sorts of fees being charged our students in this institution.”
The statement reads inter alia: “We are shocked with the level of impunity and atrocities being committed by the Vice-Chancellor and the university management through the introduction of all sort of illegal fees. This includes the misappropriation of the university funds in the course of executing majority of the projects under their watch.
“Of great concern to the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students, is the level of levity the university management handles the university’s students’ welfare issues. The last students unrest led by the Students Union Government of FUOYE, where we lost two of our students leaders is indeed an avoidable one if the management of this institution had given priority to students’ welfare.
“We hereby call on Prof. Soremekun, the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Oye Ekiti to, with immediate effect, stop the collection of this unreasonable fees and refund same to students who were forced to pay this satanic increment. Failure to do this, the management should be ready to face the wrath of the National Secretariat of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).”
Efforts to get the reactions of the management of FUOYE, through the university’s Public Relations Officer, Godfrey Bakji, was unsuccessful as at the time of filing this report.
Calls made to Bakji’s phone number did not go through. A text message sent to him was not replied either.
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