Students of the University of Lagos protesting the hike in their school fees said registering their grievances is unconnected to the ongoing Presidential Election Petition Tribunal judgment in Abuja.
They revealed that the protest date had long been picked before the Tribunal announced the date for the verdict.
A spokesman for the protesting students, Miracle Yemo, while speaking with our correspondent said, “We fixed the date long before now. It is just a coincidence that our protest fell on the same day as the PEPT verdict.”
The students are asking amongst other things for the immediate reversal of the school fee, which they said was increased by “six hundred per cent.”
They are also accusing the management of the university of being insensitive to the plight of the students, who they said are mostly indigents before hiking the fee.
The students also frowned at the attack on the students by the police, noting that they fired tear gas at them.
Speaking on the arrest of their colleagues, Femi Adeyeye, Philip Olatinwo and Temitope Giwa, Yemo demanded their immediate release saying, “They were on a peaceful course.
“ They should be released. We are harmless but they threw tear gas at us. It is a non-violent protest, so we demand the release of our colleagues.”
The university’s Dean of Students Affairs, Professor Musa Obalola, in his response said the university will come up with an official communication later.
Punch