Angry youths, students, motorists and traders on Wednesday took to the streets in Delta and Ekiti states to protest the fuel and naira scarcity that has caused hardship for many Nigerians in recent weeks.
In Ekiti, students of the state university in Ado Ekiti protested the fuel scarcity-induced hike in transport fares.
The students, who reside in Ado Ekiti and Iworoko Ekiti, said they could not afford the N400 fare to school, which was a 100 per cent increase in transportation fare.
They barricaded Iworoko Road which leads to the campus and also occupied the university gate to ensure that nobody accessed the school.
However, trouble started when the mini-bus operators plying the school from Ado Ekiti insisted that the N200 fare that was previously charged as well as the sitting arrangement in the vehicles were no longer feasible in view of the scarcity of fuel and the downtime caused by queues at petrol stations.
The President of the Student Union Government, Dotun Ogunsanya, who justified the students’ action, said, “What you have seen today is a reaction to the change in fare to and from school from N200 to N400 by the commercial transport operators.”
Reacting to the development, the Vice Chancellor of the school, Prof Edward Olanipekun, declared three “lecture (physical) free days on campus” effective Wednesday.
The vice chancellor said that the school management would use the opportunity to meet with the transport operators in the community in order to resolve the issue.
The Head of EKSU Directorate of Corporate Affairs, Bode Olofinmuagun, said, “The lecture-free days were declared in view of the present national fuel crisis which has resulted in an astronomical hike in the transport fares, thus making it difficult for many of our students and staff to come to the campus.
Meanwhile, in Delta state, angry youths, human rights activists, motorists, and traders barricaded Asaba-Onitsha Expressway in Asaba, the Delta State capital, protesting the fuel and new naira notes scarcity.
The protesters, who carried placards with different inscriptions, drummed as they called for a better Nigeria and a reduced cost of living for the citizens of the country.
The protesters demanded sanction for bank managers in the state for hoarding the new naira notes and asked the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) and the Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, to prevail on the fuel marketers to find an urgent solution to the protracted scarcity.
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, the Africa Democratic Party’s House of Reps candidate in the state, Mr Ukuanove Odimbu, said the hardship meted out on the common man on the street arising through the fuel hike and hoarding of the new naira notes was becoming unbearable.
