By; BALA B. BITRUS, Minna.
Authorities at the Federal University of Technology, FUT Minna have shifted the resumption date of the institution to 20th day of March as against the earlier date fixed for the first week of March, 2017 even as the atmosphere at the institution remains cloudy with most of the students still un-appeased or placated.
The management of the Minna based federal university of technology said students are now to return to the school on the 20th of this month just as it imposed a fine of N4,500 on each of the over 17,000 students of the institution for the damaged properties.
It would be recalled that the University was hurriedly shut down on Wednesday, 16th of February following the death of a 300 level Chemistry student, Yeye Emmanuel Olalekan while playing football at the Bosso campus of the institution.
The student who had slumped during the football game, was rushed to the university’s health center where medics at the centre refused to attend to him insisting that they must see his student’s identity card.
He eventually gave up the ghost and his fellow students went wild and razed down the health centre and other properties belonging to the school before they were chased out.
Last Thursday, a collection of the students at Bosso campus demonstrated in front of the University against the fine imposed on them insisting that the properties destroyed could not cost more than N25 million as against the nearly N77 million the institution was asking the students to cough out.
A group of the students at the Bosso area told our correspondent that the fine of N4,500 per student when multiplied by over 17,000 students, would amount to over 76 million naira.
They therefore queried the rationale and barometer used in arriving at the fines just as they expressed concern over the institution’s silence over the issue that led to the death of the student.
The authorities at the University had assured that full scale investigations would be carried out to ascertain the cause of Olalekan’s death.
The results of the autopsy report have not yet been made public even as the students are still aggrieved and agitated over the policy of the institution which insists that all sick students must be in possession of the university’s student’s identity card before they could be attended to at the institution’s health care facilities.
A statement from the office of the institution’s Registrar explained that the decision to extend the resumption date was to enable the authorities at the University to repair the damaged properties at the Bosso campus of the institution.
The statement cautioned students to remain in their respective homes as the university was still closed.