BEVERLY HILLS, February 12, (THEWILL) – Following the “avoidable” death of one of their colleague, students of Yaba College of Technology, YabaTech, on Wednesday morning embarked on a violent protest which saw them manhandling the Rector, Dr. Margaret Ladipo, “for being insensitive” to their plights.
The rampaging students, who went about destroying the institution’s property, particularly those at the medical centre, were reacting to the death of a final year student of Office Technology Management, Miss Comfort Dazan, who they claimed was not given appropriate medicare when she was taken to the medical centre.
However, in a bid to allow for time to mourn the departed and forestall further damage of property in the institution, the school management suspended academic activities in the school for four weeks. In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Mr. Charles Oni, the school directed students to vacate halls of residence by noon on Thursday, pledging to address other issues and requests raised by the students in due course.
But this directive further infuriated the students, who had requested that they be allowed to mourn the deceased on campus for two weeks. This discontent with the school’s decision led to another protest same day they were asked to leave the institution. The later protest was however peaceful as they were kept under check by security operatives.
According to Oni, “The rector, the management and the staff sympathise with the family of the deceased student and the entire student body over the unfortunate incident. The late Dazan, a student in the Office Technology Management Department was a sickle cell anaemia patient.
“She developed a crisis in the afternoon of Tuesday, February 9, 2016 and was temporarily on admission at the college medical centre under the close watch of the centre’s management.
“She was however discharged when her condition became stable, so she could prepare for her practical examination Wednesday, February 10, 2016.
“The practical examination began round the college last Monday as a precursor to the main general examination earlier scheduled for Monday, February 15.”
The statement further explained that Dazan’s crisis relapsed around midnight and her roommate rushed her back to the medical centre where precautionary medical attention was given to her pending referral to the Federal Medical Centre at Ebute Metta as soon as day broke.
“She was being conveyed to the Federal Medical Centre early Wednesday morning when she gave up the ghost. Students immediately cashed in on the death of Dazan to engage in an opportunistic clamour for the extension of the semester for two weeks.
“Unfortunately, many students do not prepare for examinations until such examinations are a week or three days away and customarily, they always plead for extensions until the management put a stop to such opportunism about two years ago.
“The hydra-headed clamour sprang up again Wednesday because of the death of Miss. Dazan,” YabaTech stated.
