July 03, (THEWILL) – On Wednesday, students of the University of Benin blocked the ever-busy Benin-Ore Highway to protest weeks of power outages on campus.
Under the heavy rains, the protest began early in the morning and saw students carrying placards and chanting slogans as they blocked the highway. The situation disrupted the free flow of vehicular movement, with many passengers stranded and unable to reach their destinations.
The Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) is in charge of electricity in Edo State. The management of the University of Benin recently expressed discontent after the Disco reportedly made an upward review of the institution’s monthly electricity charges by over 200 percent.
According to reports, the monthly bills have jumped from about N80 million to between N200 and N280 million, forcing the university to resort to power generators as well as rationalising power on its two campuses and hostels.
The students, who have only two weeks until their first semester examinations, said the power outage was severely affecting their preparation.
Speaking on Wednesday, one of the protesting students, John Afolabi, said, “We have only had one hour of electricity every day since this issue started. We are tired of studying in the dark. We need electricity to read and prepare for our exams. The university management needs to take responsibility and fix this issue.”
“We will not leave until something is done. We can’t afford to fail our exams”, said Sarah Osaigbovo, a 300-level student of the Ugbowo campus.
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the institution, Dr Benedicta Ehanire, said a meeting of the Senate was ongoing on how to resolve the issue.
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