At least 4 persons have been confirmed dead while more than 30 others have been wounded at the Niger Delta University located in Amassoma, Bayelsa State, after Nigerian Police personnel clashed with protesting students and Amassoma indigenes on Tuesday over school fees increment and sack of non-academic staff by the state government.
The Niger Delta University which is the only State-owned university in Bayelsa State was created by the late Governor Dipryie Alamieyeseigha and was funded full-time by the state government. However, the Seriake Dickson-led administration decided not to undertake 100 percent funding of the institution since 2016, citing financial constraints.
His decision led to a drastic increase in school fees by the University in order to meet up with the upkeep.
Theportcitynews.com investigation revealed that as at 2015, the school fee was about N29,000 in the faculty of social sciences. However, it has been increased to above N100,000 in 2018, thereby forcing students to drop out of school.
A source in the university who spoke to Theportcitynews.com on the condition of anonymity, said that the decision of Governor Seriake Dickson to sack workers in the University in what the governor ‘termed civil service reforms’, laid the foundation for the series of protests that have rocked the school in recent times as indigenes of Amassoma, who made up the chunk of non-academic staff, were mostly affected.
Governor Dickson had laid off the workers, saying that the workforce is too much of a financial load for the state government to bear.
Our source said that tension has been brewing for months as negotiations between the school, the community, and the state government ended in deadlocks with no tangible outcome leading to the people of Amassoma and students joining together for the protests.
The protesting students and locals made a casket with a picture of the governor inserted in it and subsequently buried it after observing a traditional wake keeping till dawn.
Our source said that the decision of the people of Amassoma to close down the University by locking the school gate for weeks forced the state government to involve the police and on the 22nd of May 2018, personnel of the Nigerian Police numbering about 300 entered Amassoma to forcefully open the gate of the University.
However, a joint body of students & Amassoma people resisted the police and in the process, the police shot tear gas canisters in a bid to chase away the protesters and opened the school gate leading to many people sustaining various degrees of injuries, the source said.
The protesters returned with force to close down the University gate leading to the death of four protesters, including a final year student simply identified as Eze.
Another source who is a student of the institution told theportcitynews.com on phone that roads leading to the community have been blocked with vehicles and logs of wood, saying that most of the students are leaving the community in droves due to fears that the protest might escalate within days.
