It was gathered that full-time students who are indigenes are expected to pay over N60,000, non-indigenes over 70,000, while newly admitted students are expected to pay over 90,000.
The students were also protesting the conditions attached to writing examinations and the recent unified test introduced by the management of the institution.
Leadership gathered that the decision to embark on protest was taken at a students’ union stakeholders’ meeting which was held on Sunday.
The management had directed that students would commence a unified test yesterday in the whole institution with the condition that only students who have paid their fees would be allowed to write the test.
The angry students blocked the institution’s gate as early as 6am and prevented lecturers and other members of staff from gaining entrance into the school premises.
They barricaded the Benin/ Abuja Expressway and stopped vehicular movement for several hours.
Several properties including the girls’ hostel building, a new generation bank Automated Teller Machine (ATM), the bank’s signage and some billboards were damaged.
The protest was later extended to the newly dualised Owo township road where they made bonfires in most junctions in the town.
Meanwhile, the management of Owo Poly has shut down by the institution, following the protest embarked upon by the students yesterday
Eyewitnesses account said that one student slumped and several others injured during the protest.
Speaking with reporters during the protest, the Vice chairman of the Joint Campus Committee (JCC) of National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) Ondo state chapter, Comrade Olasunkanmi Pelebe said the fees paid by the students were exorbitant.
He said the students of the institution are paying so much than other Polytechnic in the south west.
According to him, the management should understand that the parents of the students are not professors, politicians or business tycoon.
Pelebe lamented that parents of an average student are traders, artisans, or civil servants who thrive so hard to send their wards to school.
Also, the general secretary of the National Association of Ondo State Students (NAOSS) comrade Aminu Oluwaseyi said the students are not satisfied with the condition given to them to pay before writing tests.
Oluwaseyi said the students were bittered that a unified test was introduced to the polytechnic which was not acceptable to the higher institution environment.
Addressing the protesting students, the Rector of the institution, Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun appealed to the students to maintain peace, assuring them that the management would not be attaching any condition to the examination.
SOURCE:http://leadership.ng/news/377182/ondo-poly-students-protest-fee-hike
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