UNIBEN stops N20,000 fee For Late Registration as Students Protested

OSBC
September 16, 2021

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, Professor Lilian Salami, on Wednesday, nullify the decision to impose N20,000 late registration fee on students of the institution.

Trouble started on Tuesday when the students took to the street to protest the fee, as they blocked the Lagos-Benin Expressway and the Ekheuna Road, where both campuses of the school were located.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin announced the immediate closure of the University following the protest. In a statement issued by the Registrar of the institution on Wednesday, Ademola Bobola, Salami ordered all students to vacate their hostels and the University premises no later than noon on Wednesday. “This is based on security reports to avoid the students’ action being hijacked by hoodlums, and thereby prevent any form of breakdown of law and order within and outside the campuses of the University,” the statement read.

The unhappy students on Wednesday ignored the order of the varsity Senate shutting the school, as they continued their protest over the fee.

The students, who insisted on the decision being revoked, went to the official lodge of the vice chancellor and marched her to the gate, where she announced the decision of the management to remove the fee.

Sandwiched among the sea of heads, the protesting students made several video recordings of the vice chancellor trekking the long distance.

An attempt by the VC to take a vehicle midway through the journey was rebuffed.

A student said, “I can tell you that the fee has been removed from the portal. My friend who tried to pay after the VC’s pronouncement confirmed this to me.

“I am happy the way it all ended because it would have been unimaginable to go back home after a few days’ resumption.”

Other students confirmed that the fee had been removed from the varsity portal.

According to a source, from an initial N14,000 tuition, the school management increased school fees for the 2017/2018 academic session to N41,400.

The university management led by the Vice-Chancellor, Salami, increased tuition from N41,400 to N45,000 at the resumption of the ongoing academic session.

However less than a month later, tuition was again hiked with an increment of N20,000, bringing the school fees to N65,000.

The freshers are asked to pay N90,000, a sum considered to be outrageous by the students.