Following the recent protest buy the medical students of the University of Ibadanon the increment of their school and hostel fess, the management of the school has shut down medical school on Sunday and gave the directives to all students to vacate the hostels by noon on the same day.
The directive is contained in a release signed by the institution’s Registrar, Olujinmi Olukoya, and made available to journalists in Ibadan.
The release was, however, neither dated nor written on the official letterhead of the university.
According to the release, the Academic Board of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, considered the possible security threat that the students’ agitation against school fees could pose.
Thus, they recommended the closure.
The release said that the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, approved the board’s recommendation and directed that medical students should leave their hostels by noon on Sunday.
The President of the University of Ibadan Medical Students Association, Olakorede Jacob, frowned at the closure in a telephone interview with NAN.
Mr. Jacob said the association was not contacted through any official notice. We only saw copies of the release to that effect pasted around the hostel premises. Nonetheless, we have no choice than to adhere to the directive,” he said.
The decision of management to close the medical school is in connection with the staged protest by the students against increase in accommodation fee and introduction of a new fee described as “professional training fee”.
The students claimed that the increase was capable of making some of them to abandon their medical course.
The professional fee ranged from N75,000 to N100,000 per student, while accommodation fee in the halls of residence was raised to N30,000 per student.
As at the time of this report, all occupants of the Alexandra Brown Hall in University College Hospital had vacated the hostel.
