Parents protest ‘300% fee hike’ at federal varsity Lokoja, demand sack of VC

Some parents of Federal University, Lokoja students have kicked against the proposed 300 per cent tuition hike by the management of the institution.

It is understood that new intakes for the 2022/2023 academic session into the faculty of sciences are expected to pay N270,000 as against N100,000 by the old students.

According to NAN, the parents staged a protest within the campus on Tuesday with various placards and solidarity songs.

They also threatened to sustain the protest until the management of the university change its decision.

The aggrieved parents further called for the immediate removal of Olayemi Akinwumi, the vice-chancellor of the institution, over the “arbitrary hike in fees”.

Speaking after the protest, Moses Abraham, who led the demonstration, alleged that the hike was a plot to deny children of poor Nigerians the right to university education.

Abraham called on the federal government to prevail on the university management to reverse the hike to avert a violent protest.

“The vice-chancellor is a civil servant and we expect that he should be aware of the current economic challenges Nigerians are passing through,” he said.

Reacting to the development, Daniel Iyke, the institution’s spokesperson, said the hike in tuition fees has become inevitable since the federal government could no longer fund education alone.

He said the institution has not officially released the reviewed fees for students.

“However, it will be important for parents, students and the public to wait for official pronouncement by the authorities before complaining,” he added.