Students’ violent demonstrations have forced an indefinite closure of the Federal College of Education (FCE) Yola, Adamawa State.
It was learnt that the students were protesting poor living conditions on the campus which included the lack of water supply. The protest later degenerated into a riot.
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It was reported that the protest became violent when some of the rioting students were chased by armed military personnel and other security operatives.
Irked by the presence of security operatives, the students went wild, set fire on buildings and vandalised stores.
A student, who did not want to be mentioned, told journalists that the college had been without water for many days.
“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 for water outside the college.
We also have issues with power supply”, he added.
However, FCE authorities have admitted there was a breakdown in the college’s main water source.
They however denied that students were left without water supply.
The Registrar of the college, Ahmad Gidado, said the water scarcity was caused as a result of the breakdown of the main industrial borehole supplying water to the entire school
According to him the management swung into action on hearing about the water challenge yesterday (Monday), 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.
“The management has immediately asked students to vacate the school as security agencies have taken over the institution to manage the situation,” Gidado said.
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