Students of the Federal Polytechnic Oko in Anambra boycotted exams to protest an alleged unexpected fee imposed on them.

The students, on Wednesday, opposed what they described as the school’s “constant imposition of exam fees and other levies”.

The undergraduates numbering up to 1,000 from different departments held up placards and sang in protest.

They cordoned off the school’s main gate, administrative building, departments, permanent site, and the popular school tower.

Their placards had such inscriptions as “reduce the cost of textbooks”, “allow us to do our medical and data capture”, “say no to corrupt stakeholders”, “say no to exam fees”, and “break down our tuition fees”, among others.

Chukwuebuka Umezula, the vice president of the National Association of Polytechnic Students in the south-east, said the management released a memo on April 9 informing “students to pay an exam fee of N5,000 on or before their exercise began on April 12”.

He questioned the rationale behind the additional exam fee after students had paid their fees for the session.

He also said the memo came on short notice and fell on a public holiday.

Umezula said the students will continue the protest and boycott all exams in the school until the management rescinds its decision.

He said they had laboured to pay tuition, medical, and ICT fees and expressed shock over the new examination fee.

He said the National Association of Polytechnic Students had written the school management over the memo but it fell on deaf ears.

Also speaking, Cynthia Felix, the secretary general of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) south-east zone, said the association is working to ensure the students are not fleeced in any way.

She said the exam fee was unlawful, demanding the immediate withdrawal of the memo that introduced the fee.

The secretary-general said all students should be allowed to sit their examinations.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has asked Computer-Based Test (CBT) centre owners to ensure the arrest of any parent loitering around their facilities during the 2024 Unified Tertuiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) exercise.

The 2024 UTME is scheduled to commence on April 19 and end on April 29.

Ishaq Oloyede, the JAMB registrar, spoke at the final briefing of the CBT centre owners which was held virtually on Wednesday.

He said the directive to arrest meddlesome parents became necessary following their intrusive disposition during the previous UTMEs.

Oloyede said any parent who loiters around exam centres would not only be arrested but their ward would be disqualified.

He said it has been discovered over time that many of these intruding parents facilitate exam infractions.

The registrar said some miscreants disguise themselves as parents to infiltrate the centres and perpetrate infractions.

JAMB also directed security operatives to work with the centres to apprehend any meddlesome parent.

“Going by the extant national policy on education, a candidate for the examination must have attained the age of 17 years,” he said.

“It is evident that these parents had not allowed their wards to pass through the classes as defined in the document, hence, the determination to follow their wards to the examination venue to compromise examination officials.

“At any rate, it is clear to any discerning observer that these parents deserve to be sanctioned as they had obviously ‘smuggled’ underage children into the ranks of those scheduled to sit the examination.”

Oloyede appealed to centre owners to consider their assignment a national engagement, not a purely profit-driven venture.

He expressed shock over multiple intelligence showing how CBT centres have been making efforts to compromise the board’s staff, especially with the offer of accommodation.

He asked why they would want to do that when they constantly complain that what is paid them is not enough.

The registrar said the centres should not hesitate to expose any JAMB staff member who asks for such favours as the board had sufficiently paid its staff for the exercise in line with government regulations.

He informed the participants that the board had deployed state-of-the-art technologies to check all infractions, collaborations, and other unsavoury acts at variance with its code of operations.

Abdullahi Sule, the governor of Nasarawa, has appointed Sa’adatu Hassan Liman as the new vice-chancellor (VC) of the Nasarawa State University (NSUK).

Muhammed Ubandoma Aliyu, the secretary to the state government, confirmed the appointment in a statement on Thursday.

Aliyu said the appointment of Liman as the substantive vice-chancellor of the state university in Keffi means that the institution is “now fully positioned for optimal performance in line with the current administration’s vision for the education sector”.

He said the appointment of Liman takes effect from April 15, 2024.

With this appointment, Liman becomes the fifth substantive VC at NSUK and the first female indigenous vice-chancellor in the school’s 22-year history.

Liman is a professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Islamic and Development Studies, Faculty of Arts, NSUK.

The academic has a specialization in the area of women’s rights.

Liman obtained her bachelor’s degree in Islamic Studies with second-class honours (upper division) at the University of Jos in 1998.

She rose through the ranks and was confirmed a full professor of Islamic Studies at the Nasarawa State University in October 2017.

Liman has held various academic and administrative responsibilities at Nasarawa State University.

She served as assistant dean of student affairs from 2010 to 2012, as deputy dean of student affairs from February 2013, acting HOD of Religious Studies from April 2013 to March 2014, and acting HOD of Islamic Studies from March 2014 to October 2014.

The professor also served as the deputy dean of student affairs from May 2014 to October 2014.

From October 2014 to October 2016, Liman served as the deputy vice-chancellor academic under the tenure of Muhammad Akaro Mainoma.

She also served as the director of research and publications from 2019 to 2021.

Liman was appointed as DVC Administration by Suleiman Bala Mohammed, the immediate past VC of NSUK, from April 2021 to July 2023.

Among other leadership positions she has held, Liman is the president of the Nigeria Association of Female Teachers of Arabic and Islamic Studies (NATAIS).

NSUK was established under the Nasarawa State Law No. 2 of 2001. The institution, however, commenced academic activities in March 2002.