The National Association of Nigeria Students, NANS, Joint campus committee, JCC, Ondo axis has rejected the N25000 reparation fee leveled on students of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, AAUA, in Ondo state following the students’ recent protest.
The union however advised the management of the institution to reduce the money to N7000.
The institution was closed for academic activities last month after students took to the street of Akungba to protest the death of a student who died from motorcycle accident.
They were alleged to have destroyed some property belong to the institution.
But, a statement signed by the chairman, NANS JCC Ondo axis, Atolusi Damilola Anthony said Nigerian students reject with utmost passion the N2500 damage fee leveled on them by the school authority.
It said the school management should not also make the payment of the fee a condition for sitting for the coming examination in the institution.
The students’ association said the management should consider the fact that their parents are still being owed five months salary by the state government.
However, Anthony said the union is not against the management sanctioning the students for the damages done on the institution.
He noted that the students’ association also condemned the destructive act of the students, saying such act does not reflect good behaviour in any Nigeria student .
The statement reads, “We are not against the fact that the management want to sanction them through payment of damages”
“All we are saying is that N25,000 is too much for our parents to bear considering the fact that the school is dominated by wards of Ondo State Civil Servants who have not received salary since November 2015 ”
“Most of these parents have 2 to 4 children in this same university, therefore, where do we expect them to get such a huge amount of money?
“Records have it that 30% of the students are self-sponsored, where do we expect these hopeless people to get such money which is even more than their school fees?
” Is this not an indirect message to our girls to engage in prostitution and our boys in armed robbery before they can pay the damages? We hereby implore the management to temper justice with mercy”. NANS alleged that before the unfortunate incident, management has not been responsive enough to the agitations of the students on the need for the management to improve on the services rendered at the ’21st Century Comprehensive Health Centre. The JJC chairman said, the school must be proactive enough to provide oxygen cylinder and other first aid kits which can sustained the life of students incase of emergency.
He said if the management insists on N25,000 for the damages, the students will be ready to pay but that the management must also be ready to bring back to life the student(s) who died as a result of the school’s carelessness and incompetence.
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