No fewer than three students of the Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro, headquarters of Isoko North Local Government Area, who were protesting against hike in school fees, as well as the Monday ultimatum handed them to pay the fees, have been hospitalized.

They allegedly sustained injuries from pellets fired at them by operatives of the Nigeria Police drafted from the Ozoro police station to quell the protest on Wednesday.

But swiftly reacting to the allegation, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Delta State police command, Celestina Kalu, denied such dastard act.

“It is not true; no one was shot; no one was hospitalized. It is a lie,” he said.

However, the Nigerian Tribune gathered that the rampaging students disrupted academic activities at the institution and also barricaded the Ozoro axis of the Kwale-Asaba Expressway.

Besides halting vehicular movement with commuters stranded for the better part of Wednesday, the rampaging students were said to have torched some vehicles both in the campus and along the Kwale-Asaba road.

This, it was gathered, attracted the presence of law enforcement agents, who stormed the institution to restore law and order.

It was gathered that the students, who were preparing for the first semester examination, had been given till next Monday to offset their bills before the commencement of examination, a situation which further infuriated some of the students.

The students had, at the beginning of the semester, grudgingly accepted the over 90 per cent increase in their school fees jacked up from N32, 000 to N54, 850, said to be a flat rate for both old and new students.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that as of 2.00p.m on Wednesday, the rampaging students armed themselves with placards with inscriptions such as “Reduce our school fees now” and “Return to the old school fees,” among others and protested to the palace of the Ovie of Ozoro to register their grievances.

Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the institution, Mr B.A Ekanem, refused to speak to journalists, saying he was not in the mood to make comments.

While the protest lasted, operatives of the police command, Ozoro Police Division, who stormed the protest apprehended some of the students and whisked them away in their van to their station.

An unconfirmed report says that three students of the institution, who sustained varying degrees of injuries, were later rushed to an undisclosed hospital for medical attention.

One of the aggrieved students, female student of the Department of Business Administration of the institution, who declined mentioning her name, said following the protest, academic activities have been put on hold for one week until peace returns to the school.

Source: TRIBUNE