UNIBEN Suspends Students’ Union After Protest Against Fee Hike

Following the protest led by the University of Benin Students Union leaders against fee hike, the management of the institution has suspended the executives and the parliamentarians of the union from office.

This was made known in a statement signed by the school’s spokesperson, Mr. Osasuyi on Monday.

The release reads: “The senate of University of Benin, at its  special meeting held on Monday, 4th December, 2017 deliberated exhaustively on the role played by the present students’ union executives and parliament on the recent students unrest, the senate after due consideration, decided as follows;

“That the present students union Executives and Parliament be suspended from office and advised to handover any property belonging to the union and university to approximate authority.

“Consequently, the management has set up a panel of investigation to look at the remote and immediate causes of the crisis.”

The recent spate of suspensions by the school is perhaps reminiscent of a trend in Nigerian universities where student leaders are punished for leading students to protest bad welfare conditions such as poor power supply, bad hostel conditions, and inadequate teaching facilities.

Similar development has recently taken at the University of Ibadan, the University of Lagos, and the Obafemi Awolowo University.