The Management of the Federal University Lokoja, Kogi State, has ordered an immediate closure of the school.
According to a statement by the Registrar of the University, Rebecca Okojie, the closure followed the tragic trailer accident that claimed the lives of five students of the institution on Monday and failed attempts to calm protesting students.
“Following the unfortunate loss of the lives of five students to a tragic trailer accident at Felele city centre on Monday, 17th February 2025, students have barricaded the gates of the university despite magnanimous interventions from the State Government as well as frantic efforts and appeal by the University Management for calm.
“Accordingly, arising from the advice of the State Security Agencies and to forestall further loss of lives, the Vice-Chancellor, after due consultation with Management has decided on behalf of the Senate, that the University (both campuses) be closed down indefinitely within one hour of the release of this circular,” the statement read.
The school directed students to vacate the campuses on or before noon on Thursday, 20th February 2025.
The protesting students had threatened to block the Abuja-Lagos Highway if the Federal Government failed to stop the incessant killing of their colleagues by trucks.
Student Union Government (SUG) President Benjamin Timothy, said the students were tired of mourning their colleagues.
Five of the institution’s students were killed on Monday when an articulated vehicle lost control and crushed a shuttle bus with students onboard.
“The five students killed on Monday have brought the number to 12 students killed by trucks in avoidable accidents in just a space of two months,” the SUG President decried.
Timothy said that the peaceful demonstration staged on Wednesday was a signal to the authorities concerned to do something drastic about the continuous massacre of innocent students along the highway, or they would barricade the highway.
“We have given the authorities 72 hours to address the incessant killings of our fellow students, or we file out of the streets in huge protest.
“The five fellow students that were killed on Monday brought the casualty to 12. We can’t keep folding our arms to see those trucks keep on killing us like chickens.
“Most of us came to this university from afar in search of knowledge and not to die.
“Therefore, we must rise against dangerous and reckless drivers who are out to kill us along the Felele Highway,” he said.
Also speaking, Gomina Ahmed-Kabir, Chairman of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in Kogi, decried the inaction of the federal and state governments over the continuous killing of students on the highway.
Ahmed-Kabir said the authorities should not blame the students if they blocked the highway to drive home their demands to put a stop to the killings.
Responding, retired Commodore Jerry Omodara, the Security Adviser to Governor Usman Ododo, pleaded with the protesting students to give the government more time to address the issue.
He said that Ododo had, within less than 24 hours of Monday’s ugly incident, already constituted a committee to look into the matter.
