Rivers Students Block Govt House Over Varsity’s Fees Payment Policy

Students of the Rivers State University yesterday defied the heavy downpour that occurred in Port Harcourt, the state capital and temporarily took over the main entrance of the Government House, in protest over the decision of school’s management not to allow final year students who have not paid their fees to participate in the ongoing second semester examination.

This is as the chairman of Emohua local government area of the state, Dr. Chidi Lloyd, approved educational intervention fund for final year students of Rivers State University, who are indigenes of the area.

Lloyd said the intervention programme would take care of the school fees of genuine final year students of the university with verifiable indigeneship across the local government area.

He said representatives of local government council would be interfacing with the management of the university to establish the number of genuine final year students in the state owned institution, who were natives of the area for proper implementation of the intervention programme.

The protesting students, who marched from the university gate through Ikwerre Road, Azikiwe Road and other major roads before getting to the Government House gate, defied entreaties by the state commissioner of police to discontinue the march.

The management of the university had on October 14, 2022, announced that it will embark on the policy to ensure that students who are indebted to the school pay up.

Our correspondent observed that on Monday when the second semester examination started, the majority of the final year students were not allowed to enter the examination halls.