Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has called for the reinstatement of two final-year students of the University of Abuja rusticated for allegedly inciting their colleagues over a recent hike in tuition fees by the management of the institution.

HURIWA, in a statement on Sunday by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko said it was the constitutional right of the students to protest the tuition hike which the management raised up to 50%.

The school recently increased the tuition fees by about 50 per cent for the new session but the two students awaiting their results to proceed with the mandatory National Youth Service Corps scheme protested the scheme.

The university had accused the members of the Students’ Union Government – Cyprian Igwe and Olalekan Oladeru – of circulating a WhatsApp group message inviting other students for a meeting over the fee hike.

Subsequently, the university, in a “rustication letter” dated May 26, 2023, and signed by the deputy registrar (academic) on behalf of the registrar, accused both Igwe and Oladeru, of circulating an “inciteful press release” capable of “jeopardising the peaceful and smooth conduct of academic activities in the university and a breach of the University Matriculation Oath”, according to PUNCH Newspapers.

But following a public outcry over their rustication, the management of the institution, on Saturday alleged that Igwe and Oladeru were “suspended” and not “rusticated,” contrary to a letter issued to them.

HURIWA’s Onwubiko said: “The management of the University of Abuja acted in an authoritarian manner and this is most condemnable.

“Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides inter alia that ‘every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information without interference’. Section 22 and Section 40 also protected the aggrieved students.

“The school should be a place of learning and enable the consciousness of human rights and not stifle the inalienable rights of students, thereby producing spineless and feeble students who won’t be able to rise up to speak against oppressive tendencies and policies that directly affect them like the fee hike.

“Whether it is a rustication or a suspension, we condemn the management of the University of Abuja and call for the instant reinstatement of the students and the immediate cessation of official hostilities to exercise of constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedoms of association and peaceful assembly.”