Jumoke Olasunkanmi
The Michael Okpara University of Agriculture (MOUA) Abia state, has shut down the institution following a student protest.
The institution’s vice-chancellor, Maduebibisi Iwe declared an indefinite closure of the university in a statement released on Tuesday.
In the statement, Iwe ordered all students to evacuate the university’s premises immediately, as a means to ‘protect life and property on campus’.
The decision comes in the wake of a large-scale protest by students over increased fees and the administration’s refusal to permit those who hadn’t paid their fees to participate in ongoing first-semester examinations.
“This is to notify the public that the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia, woke up to experience the violation of the long-existing peace of the university this morning,” the statement reads.
The statement further elucidates: “Miscreants took over the university, chasing and pursuing the vice-chancellor, damaging his official vehicle and those of his officials. They were claiming that they were not allowed to take their first-semester examinations owing to their failure to pay their charges.”
He noted that the university’s records showed that 70 per cent of students had settled their fees and 2,000 others were in the process of making payment before the protest erupted.
