UNIBEN students protest imposition of extra charges for late tuition payment

Human and vehicular movements along Benin-Lagos expressway were on Tuesday stalled as students of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) staged a peaceful protest over what they call “additional N20,000 charges for late payment of school fees.”

The Ekehuan campus of the university wasn’t left out as roads linking Ekehuan road to the city center of the state were blocked by the protesting students.

Displaying placards with inscriptions such as “Education na our right not privilege, UNIBEN nor be BOWEN, urgent 20k nor be our budget, oppression comes in different forms, we didn’t sign for this injustice”, the protesters urged the school authority to reverse the policy.

One of the protesting students, who preferred to be anonymous, said they were earlier directed to pay up their fees through the portal with the warning that any payment beyond the set deadline will attract an additional N10,000.

“While the same portal has been frequently down thereby denying those who want to pay to access it, an additional N10,000 was immediately added after the date without any prior information to that effect, making the increment N20,000”. We were also informed that failure to pay the amount, we will cease to be students”, she said.

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Egwu Benjamin, president, Student Union Government, UNIBEN, on his part, said the institution resumed on August 15, 2021, and they were informed by the management that there will be extra charges on late payment of school fees.

Benjamin, who said all attempts made to reach the school management to review the policy have proved abortive, urged them to call the students’ union executive council for a roundtable meeting.

He demanded that there should be a “reversal of the policy of extra N20,000.

It is just four weeks into resumption. The management should give students till the second semester. Before now, the normal extra charges for late payment of school fees is N10,000 and it normally comes in the second semester before the examination.