UNIABUJA students protest again

Aggrieved medical students of the University of Abuja have once again stage a protest over failure of the authorities to put an end to their plights and demanded N10million compensation for each student for wasted years in the institution.

The students, who disrupted activities within the main campus and environs, barricaded the highway, disrupting flow of traffic.

Wielding placards with such inscriptions as  “8 years and still in 300 level.” Without MBBS exams since 2005,” the students said their request to be transferred to other institutions as their counterparts in the affected departments had been kept in the cooler, saying time was running out.

The angry students described their plights as a deliberate move on the part of the management of the institution and the federal government to frustrate their graduation from the institution.

They also demanded a compensation of N10 million each per student of the medical department for the years wasted.

The students explained that the N10 million compensation evolved from cost incurred by each student in the past eight years,  including tuition and off-campus accommodation cost of up to N200,000 per year.

The medical students demanded to be transferred to other universities, complaining they were tired of the school authorities, saying they had been  “lying to us, deceiving us, wasting our productive years.”

The protest, which was largely peaceful, prompted the cancellation of examinations set for thousands of distance-learning students.

Public Relation Officer of the university, Mr Waziri Garba, told Vanguard  that a committee had been set up to investigate the matter and provide possible solutions.

Garba said all efforts by the vice-chancellor of the university, Prof Joseph Sunday Adelabu, to meet with the students a day before the protest fell on deaf ears.

He said students who wished to be transferred to other universities had to apply, stressing that their transfer must pass through the National Universities Commission, NUC, and Nigerian Medical Association, NMA.



-- Vanguard