FCE Yola Shuts Down Indefinitely as Students turns Protest to Riot

The management of the Federal College of Education (FCE) Yola, Adamawa State has shut down the institution indefinitely due to students’ violent protest.

A notice signed for the College Registrar by the Deputy Registrar, Yusufu Usman, and dated 29/11/2021, asked all students and workers, except management staff and security personnel, to vacate the college immediately.

It was learned that the students were protesting their poor living conditions in the school which included the lack of water supply. The protest later turned into a riot.

The students went wild, set fire on buildings, and vandalized stores. It was gathered that the protest wasn’t violent until when some of the rioting students were chased by armed military men and other security men.

A student while narrating what happened said:
“We’re left to sleep and study under poor environmental conditions. Imagine, over 5000 of us are in this school without water for days. We have to source water outside the college. We also have issues with power supply“.

The authorities have admitted there was a lack of water supply due to a breakdown in the college’s main water source but have denied that students were left without water supply.

Ahmad Gidado, the Registrar of the college said that the water scarcity was caused as a result of the breakdown of the main industrial borehole which supplies water to the entire school.

According to him, the management went into action on learning about the water challenge on Monday and immediately asked the works and services department to fix the problem, but only to wake up to see students rioting on Tuesday.

“The college has other boreholes but dealing with about 5000 students, it could not meet the water needs of the school; that was why the water tanker was used to augment the water needs caused by the breakdown of the industrial borehole.

“This morning while the water tanker was distributing water to fetching points the agitation of the students persisted. In order not to allow the incident to get out of hand, an emergency meeting by the school management was convened in the interest of peace and order, and we decided to close down the school“ he said.

Students have seen protest and rioting as a means to convey their grievances and table their complaints to schools and authorities, but the destruction of properties and the shutdown of institutions associated with it is worrying.

WRITTEN BY UMAR IBRAHIM