Protest Over Fee Hike Goes Awful, As Student Shot Dead In Kaduna State

One of the students of the Kaduna State College of Education, Gidan Waya, Jema’a Local Government Area of the State that was involved in protest against hike in school fees was on Monday shot dead.

This is as the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students is claiming that it was two students that were shot dead by security personnel.

The deceased joined his fellow student to protest against the Governor Nasir El-Rufai-led government decision to increase school fees that the students considered too high as it may lead to more than 70 percent of them withdrawing from school owing to their inability to pay the new fees.

As the students were protesting what they considered as unjustified hike in school fees, security operatives dispatched to quell the protest moved decisively to disperse them forcefully.

One of the protesters (names withheld), said they were out on a peaceful protest over the increase of school fees in the state-owned institution but were met with security agents that converged outside their College.

The student said that in the process, one of their colleagues simply identified as Emmanuel Nata was also shot and presently receiving treatment in a hospital.

While confirming the incident at a press conference, the National President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Sunday Asefon, said he gathered that two students were killed during the protest while another was shot.

Asefon noted that the Kaduna State government did not take into consideration the prevailing economic realities in the country before increasing tuition fees by more than 300 percent.

He said that the students before the increase were finding extremely difficult to cope with the previous school fees that ranged between N25,000 to N33,000 and therefore wondered how the state government expect the poor students to meet up with the present increment to N75,000.

When contacted, the Provost of the College, Professor Alexander Kure, who confirmed the protest, however said that he was yet to establish the rationale for the development.