Aggrieved students of Taraba State University in Jalingo, the state capital, took to the streets on Monday to protest as unpaid lecturers boycotted the school’s semester examinations billed to commence today.
The students were supposed to start their examination today but the inability of the lecturers to get paid impeded the process.
In protest, the students blocked all roads leading to the institution, hindering vehicular movement around the axis. They also burnt tyres and chanted solidarity songs.
The students later blocked the Jalingo-Wukari Expressroad hindering vehicular movement. Business activities were also brought to a halt.
The students’ leader at the university, Salisu Waziri told Channels Television that the demonstration is a solidarity protest with lecturers on the campus who have not been paid 10 months’ salaries.
“We are supposed to start our first semester’s examinations today but on getting to the venue of the exams, we were told that the exams will not hold because our lecturers have been owed salaries for 10 months,” he said.
Waziri called on the school authorities and the state government to pay the emoluments of the lecturers for examinations to hold.
“These lecturers have children, they have families to take care of. Some of our students are almost 30 years and the more they continue to stay in school, they cannot go for NYSC which has an age limit.
“This strike is a solidarity strike with our lecturers. We call on the government and the school management to ensure our lecturers are paid their 10 months’ salaries so that we can be taught and our exams take place,” he said.
As of the time of filing this report, no authority of the institution or the state government have commented on the protest.
The protest is coming months after the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) called off its eight-month strike for unpaid allowances, amongst other demands in October 2022 following a judgement by the National Industrial Court.