Fees crisis: Ogun House orders meeting between OOU, parents

The Ogun State House of Assembly on Thursday directed the management of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, to dialogue with parents of its medical students on ways to resolve the school fees crisis in the institution.
Hon. Adeyinka Mafe, the Chairman, House Committee on Education, Science and Technology, gave the directive in Abeokuta at an interactive session with the institution’s management and students.
The students had on Tuesday staged a protest to the Assembly, alleging extortion by the university authorities.
Mafe, who warned the university authorities against penalising any student over the matter, called for compromise between the parties.
Another member of the committee, Hon. Motunrayo Adeleye-Oladapo, commended the students for presenting their demands in a peaceful manner.
Adeleye-Oladapo said the Assembly would ensure that whatever decision was reached after the meeting between the parents and the institution’s management would be in the interest of all the parties.
Earlier, Yemi Adegbesan, the President of OOU Medical Students Association, had pleaded with the Assembly to stop the institution’s authorities from collecting additional school fees from students.
Adegbesan said: “The management has refused to allow the final year medical students from OOU do their induction because it wants each student to pay two extra semesters’ school fees.
“The school authorities should clear students that have graduated to enable them proceed for their compulsory National Youth Service Corps programme.”
The Vice Chancellor of OOU, Prof. Sabur Adesanya, said that the institution’s authorities would hold a meeting with the students and their parents to resolve the issue.
Adesanya, who said the Senate of the institution would also have to take a decision on the matter, added that it was an academic matter.
He also said the university’s College of Health Sciences needed more facilities to accommodate its current student population.
The vice-chancellor disclosed that the institution had just been denied accreditation due to inadequate facilities, adding that more funds were needed.
He said: “They are still my students.
“None of them will be victimised and we will treat the matter as a family affair and also follow the rules of the school.”