YabaTech Shut Down for Four Weeks after Students’ Protest
Academic activities at the Yaba College of Technology (YabaTech) have been suspended for four weeks to allow its management and students mourn the loss of Miss Comfort Dazan who passed on Wednesday morning, as well as to forestall the further damage of property in the institution.
Following Dazan’s death, students had embarked on a violent protest on Wednesday morning, resulting in the destruction of property at the medical centre. They also manhandled the Rector, Dr. Margaret Ladipo, “for being insensitive to the plight of students”.
In a statement signed by the college’s spokesperson, Mr. Charles Oni, the school directed students to vacate halls of residence by noon yesterday and pledged to attend to other issues and requests by the students in due course.
The directive further infuriated the students, who had requested that they be allowed to mourn the deceased on campus for two weeks, leading to another peaceful protest yesterday which was brought kept under check by security operatives.
The statement read in part: “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 press release also stated 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,” the college added.