STUDENTS OF GTC ABAKALIKI PROTEST AGAINST ALLEGED STARVATION AND EXTORTION

Students of Government Technical College Abakaliki, Ebonyi State have protested against starvation and alleged extortion of money by their principal.

The students who shut and barricaded the gate of their school with iron bars to express their feelings demanded immediate sack of the principal.

It took the intervention of the Senior Special Adviser to the State Governor on Religious and Welfare Matters, Reverend Father Abraham Nwali and the police to calm the situation.

The incident was the second time, the College was being locked down by students since Ebonyi State Government handed it over to Catholic Diocese of Abakaliki for proper management.

The students who tied palm fronds and pasted placards on the locked gate with various inscriptions, alleged that the Principal of the school was starving them as well as forcing them to pay money for chemicals for their practical studies.

The Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on Religious and Welfare Matters who is also Vicar General of Catholic Diocese of Abakaliki, Reverend Father Abraham Nwali frowned at the development pointing out that it was not the right of the students to determine who becomes their Principal.

He noted that the Bishop would look into their demands and warned that the students and their teachers would have the choice to continue with the school or be transferred when it becomes full mission college by September this year.

The State Commissioner for Education, Professor John Eke alleged that the protest was instigated by some cultists who still masquerade as students in the school.

Radio Nigeria gathered that the Technical College was cut off from the national grid after the State Government dragged Enugu Electricity Distribution Company to court for giving the three Technical Colleges in the State over ten million Naira estimated billing.

AMECHI ODO