Fees’ Hike: Parents Demand Sack Of Federal Varsity Lokoja VC

Parents of students of Federal University, Lokoja have called for the immediate removal of the vice chancellor of the university, Prof. Olayemi  Akinwumi for what they described as an arbitrary hike in  school fees without recourse for the current economic situation in the country.

The parents who protested carrying placards of various inscriptions said the protest would continue until the management of the university reversed itself over the increment.

The leader of the group, Mr Moses Abraham who made the call while addressing newsmen in Lokoja on Tuesday said the increment in school fees which is almost 300 per cent was orchestrated to deny parents and Nigerian masses from acquiring university education for their children.

Reeling the breakdown of the current hike in the students’ fees, Abraham said the remedial course, which has N50,000 as school fees is now N100,000 while fees for new intake which was formerly N56,000 now moved to N188,500.

He added that the fees for new intake art/social sciences hitherto fixed for N55,000 has been increased to N183,500 just as returning students are expected to pay N113,000 against the former fees of N47,000.

According to him, student accommodation per bed space which was charged for N20,000 before has been hiked by the vice chancellor to N60,000 while the GST hand book sold to students at N1,500 per copy now increased to N6,500.

Lamenting further, the parents spokesman said the increment was too much for parents to bear and called on the federal government through the minister of Education to prevail on  the vice chancellor to reverse the hike in the fees  before he collapsed the only federal university in  Kogi state.

“The vice chancellor is a civil servant and we expected that he should be aware of the current economic doldrum the people of this country are passing through recently. How can people pay their children school fees with the current increment when sources of income remain stagnated,” he lamented.

Reacting to the protest, the public relation officer of the university, Mr Daniel Iyke, said there has not been any official release of any increase in the university charges.