UNILAG, YABATECH STUDENTS PROTEST

Students of both the University of Lagos, UNILAG, Akoka, and the Yaba College of Technology, YABATECH, Wednesday grounded activities on their respective campuses over disagreement with the management of their schools on academic and welfare issues.
The YABATECH students had locked the entrance gates of their institution in protest over the sudden death of their colleague, Dazan Charity Oluwabukola – a Higher National Diploma II student of the Department of Office Technology Management.
The students had accused the college management, and its medical centre in particular, of negligence. They, therefore, demanded for improved welfare condition on the campus and the reinstatement of its suspended students’ union.

One of the students, who spoke to ‘New Telegraph’ on condition of anonymity, said the students had rushed the late Dazan to the medical centre Tuesday night but the centre rejected her claiming there was no bed space.
The source said: “We rushed her to the clinic when she had crisis in the night she was rejected. She was referred to the Federal Medical Centre in Ebute-Metta and when we got there the hospital demanded for N35,000. Our inability to raise the money led to her death. You can imagine a final year student with the best result of 4.93 CGPA in her department dying of negligence.”
The students demanded for a two-week break and a shift of the semester examination scheduled to commence next week. The period of the break, they claimed, would be enough for the management to fix the welfare issues and restore the students’ union. “How can we go into the examination without adequate medical facilities, water and light?”

But the college has denounced the students’ allegation, describing them as lazy.
In a statement issued by the college and signed by the Head of its Public Relations Unit, Mr. Charles Oni, stated that the students were only looking for excuse to seek for the postponement of the examinations.
Meanwhile, the 100 level medical students of UNILAG and their diploma programme counterparts, were joined by their parents to disrupt academic and business activities on the campus.
The protesters, who had caused heavy traffic gridlock on the campus, had blamed the university for denying them promotion to 200 level medical college in Idi-Araba. They said the university had introduced new rules in the middle of their programmes against the practice.