The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has protested an over 300 per cent increment in school fees at the Edo State-owned Ambrose Alli University, (AAU) Ekpoma.
The students, while at the premises of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) Edo State Council, demanded immediate review of the fees for peace to reign.
They also demanded the sack of the Acting vice chancellor, Prof. Sonnie Adagbonyin, and the Special Intervention Team (SIT). Vice President, Inter-campus Affairs, Vanessa Egheahie, said should the state government refuse to revert to the old fees, NANS would move its headquarters to AAU to enforce the reversal, lamenting that indigent students cannot afford to go to school with the new charges.
She said the new tuition makes AAU the most expensive public university in Nigeria, as law students are expected to cough out N741,500, as against N185,000, while Medical Science students are to pay N638,000 as against N216 for new students.
“It is quite unfortunate that the state government has increased these fees making it impossible for indigent students to go to school. What the management is telling us is that before a salary earner in Edo State could send his child to study law, he would have to work for 23 months before he can pay one level school fees for his child.
“It is not possible, remember that Edo is 78 per cent civil service state. How can children of traders, civil servants and other low-income earners pay these kinds of fees?” Egheahie asked.