Abiodun Onafuye
Abeokuta – No fewer than four students were injured today as disparate groups of students in tertiary schools in Ogun state, western Nigeria disagreed on what should be their appropriate response to the reduction in school fees announced by the state government on Tuesday.
While a group of students from Moshood Abiola Polytechnic and the Federal University of Agriculture, insisted that Governor Ibikunle Amosun should be commended and had gathered at the Governor’s office to express support, another group of students from Olabisi Onabanjo University in Ago-Iwoye felt the governor had not done enough and demanded more concessions.
The latter group, took their protests to the city of Abeokuta, causing traffic gridlock on IBB Boulevard. It was while they were protesting in town that the clash occurred.
The four students injured were rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta.
At the Governor’s Arcade, where the appreciative students gathered, they were received by government officials led by the Chief of Staff, Prof. Ganiyu Olatunde and several other Commissioners and Special Advisers.
Chairman of National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, Comrade Okikiola Ogunsola, a.k.a. Okiki Aluta, expressed appreciation to the State governor for what he called the ” drastic reduction in the school fees”.
The NANS Chairman said reduction of school fees in Ogun State was unprecedented, adding that the present administration was magnanimous enough to have listening to the yearnings of the students’ populace, despite the dwindling allocation from the federation account.According to the Students’ leader, “We are here to appreciate the Governor because our Governor is a listening Governor, first of it is the reduction in the school fees, composition of Governing Council in Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, the appointment of Special Adviser to the governor on Students’ Affairs, first of its kind in the history of the State and for the peace we have enjoyed in our schools”, he explained.
As he spoke, students of Olabisi Onabanjo University, also led by their President, Comrade Olusegun Ifade, a.k.a. Socialist, stormed the governor’s office in protest of certain conditions attached to the reduction, describing it as “politically motivated”.
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