UI students protest over lack of power, water

Olufemi Atoyebi, Ibadan

Students of the University of Ibadan on Saturday March 5, 2016 forcefully closed the school main gate and other entrances in protest against non-availability of electricity and water in the institution.
The five-hour protest put a halt to all activities within the school community while traffic built up on all roads within the school.

Thousands of the students came out of their halls of residence to join the protest, displaying placard, some of which drew the attention of the school management to their plight in the past few days. Some of them accused the school management of deliberately ignoring the problems confronting them despite several efforts to bring the issues to its notice.

President of the institution’s Students’ Union, Olateju Oladimeji, echoed the anger of the students in a chat with our correspondent. He said the students representatives wrote a letter to the school authority stating the problems they were facing without a positive response.
“We have been living on the campus without electricity and water for the past three weeks. Sanitary situation on the campus is currently at its lowest and we notified the school authority but it refused to take any action. The management is insensitive to our plights,” he said.

‎Reacting to the protest staged by the students, the Director of Communication in UI, Mr Muhammed Oladejo, denied that the school management took no action to address the problems.

He said sudden drop in the hours of electricity provided the school by the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company and the theft of the school electricity cable disrupted the supply of electricity to the halls.

“Our major problem is that IBEDC dropped its supply to the school from between 18 and 22 hours to 12 hours. We have our own arrangement to complement electricity supply but the cable that supply power to the school 33KVA power generation within was stolen. We have replaced the cable and spoke to the students. They were mature about the situation and calmness has returned. Their welfare is our concern,” he said.