Students at the University of Benin (UNIBEN) are protesting power outage in the varsity which they say is in its third week.
The students defied rainfall on Wednesday morning, blocking the outbound route of the Lagos-Benin Expressway.
The university’s main gate was also shut down.
With only two weeks until their first semester examination, the students said the situation is affecting their preparations.
The university management’s inability to reach agreement with the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) over contentious electricity billing left the school without power.
The management recently expressed discontent with the company after it reportedly made an upward review of the institution’s monthly electricity charges by over 200 percent.
According to the management, the monthly electricity bill jumped from about N80 million to N280 million, forcing the university to resort to power generators.
“We only have 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.
Sarah Osaigbovo, a 300-level student of the Ugbowo campus, said: “We will not leave until something is done. We can’t afford to fail our exams because of the university’s negligence.”
