University of Benin students on Wednesday took to the streets, blocking the ever-busy Benin-Ore Highway to stage a protest concerning weeks of power outage on their campus.
According to the students, they only have two weeks to study before the commencement of their exams, stating that the bad power situation is already affecting them.
It was gathered the university was thrown into a blackout following the inability to reach an agreement with the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) over a contentious electricity bill.
The management of the institution was said to have expressed discontent after the Benin Disco reportedly made an upward review of the institution’s monthly electricity charges by over 200 per cent.
The monthly bill was said to have jumped from about N80 million to between N200 and N280 million, forcing the university to resort to power generators as well as rationalization of power on the two campuses and hostels.
They said, “We 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,” said John Afolabi, one of the protesting students.
The protest, which began early in the morning, saw students carrying placards and chanting slogans as they blocked the highway.
“We will not leave until something is done. We can’t afford to fail our exams because of the university’s negligence, said Sarah Osaigbovo, a 300 level student of the Ugbowo campus.”.
The student’s protest caused traffic gridlock on the ever busy Benin – Ore road causing many passengers to get stranded.
