Gridlock in Akungba as AAUA Students Block Major Highway Over 68-Day Strike

Commercial and transit activities in Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, were brought to an abrupt halt on Thursday as hundreds of students from Adekunle Ajasin University (AAUA) took to the streets, barricading major transport corridors and sealing the institution's primary access gates. The mass action was sparked by frustration over a 68-day strike that has completely paralyzed academic and administrative operations across the state-owned university.

Chanting solidarity songs and wielding placards with pointed inscriptions such as “Every pending graduate, shey na our lives be these?” and “Enough is Enough,” the demonstrators, coordinated by the Students’ Union Government (SUG), voiced outrage over their stalled academic timelines. The protest caused massive vehicular gridlock, forcing interstate commuters and commercial haulage operators to remain stranded for hours along the busy arterial highway linking Ondo to neighbouring states.

Addressing newsmen at the barricades, SUG President, Comrade Folagbade Greatness Ayoola, lamented that the student body had been pushed to the wall after over two months of administrative paralysis. Ayoola alleged that despite the prolonged suspension of lectures, the university management continued to demand school fee payments while the core grievances of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and sister unions—including NASU, NAAT, and SSANU—remained unresolved.

“We will continue to use legitimate means to press for the resolution of this crisis until the strike is called off. Students cannot remain at home endlessly while paying for sessions they are not allowed to complete,” Ayoola stated.