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MINNA – Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna students yesterday took to the streets in protest over constant robbery attacks on them, especially off campus students.
The students in their numbers, disrupted the day’s academic activities, blocked the main campus, Gidan-kwano gate and the Minna-Bida highway chanting anti-government slogans to draw attention.
Motorists plying the Minna-Bida road were forced to a halt during the protests which started as early as eight in the morning and lasted for hours.
Our correspondent also learnt that the students later moved to block the institution’s main gate before the Vice Chancellor arrived the scene but was denied access into the university by the students who barricaded both entrance and exit gate.
Eyewitness account said it took the combined efforts of the university’s and thst of law enforcement agencies to create a way for the Vice Chancellor to gain access into the university.
Apart from the Vice Chancellor, top management staff, including the Deputy Vice Chancellor, lecturers and non-academic staff who were caught up in the protest were denied entry into the campus by the angry students.
Many of the protesting students who had just returned from their various homes lamented that they have lost various sums of money and other valuables to criminal elements within host communities.
Nevertheless, some students lamented that the protest has disrupted scheduled computer aptitude semester test for 100 and 300 level students as the plan have been truncated by the protest.
One of the students told our correspondent that one student lost his life in a robbery attack three days ago, while another robbery incident which occured on Monday night left many other students injured.
“Robbery incidents have become rampant off campus because the school management refused to take action by protecting students that are not on campus due to inadequate hostel accommodation”, one of the protesting students said.
One of the non-academic staff of the institution told our correspondent in confidence that the students were angered by the N10, 000 (ten thousand Naira) security charges collected from them every session but the school management have failed to utilize the money to provide security on and off campus.
