By Adeyinka Adeniran
University of Ibadan Medical Students studying at the University College Hospital (UCH) on Thursday staged a protest to challenge and express displeasure with the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) for disconnecting their halls of residence.
The students with placards shut down the entrance gate of the hospital, causing heavy traffic flow around the axis as they insisted on not ending the protest until their hostel is reconnected.
The affected students who turned out in their large number carried placards with inscriptions such as “Enough is enough” IBEDC gives us light”, “The present development is unacceptable”, “We have been in darkness in the past 105 days” and “For how long are will going to continue in this kind situation?”
Others read “The government is making things difficult for us”, “We are studying under darkness and the public will expect something from us”, “After paying so much as tuition fees, we are still being subjected to hardship. This is nothing but denial of studentship right”, “This is nothing but high level of corruption”, amongst others.
Corenews reports that the distribution company had on Wednesday restored power to the facility, following a tripartite meeting between the management of IBEDC and that of the UCH.
The meeting was facilitated by the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu. At the meeting, the IBEDC had agreed to restore power to the UCH within 24 to 48 hours after the meeting.
The promise was fulfilled when power was restored to the clinical areas of the facility on Wednesday.
It was gathered that light was restored around 6PM to the clinical area only as residential and commercial areas were left out.
The development sparked protest by the students who expressed displeasure towards the disconnection of light from their hall of residence, despite payment of tuition, an action they regarded as denial of their studentship right.
Speaking at the protest, the President, University of Ibadan Student Union, Comrade Aweda Bolaji said it was disheartening that what the Minister promised was that lightnwill be restored to the whole of UCH.
He said, they had warned both the management of the hospital and the IBEDC that that they will shut down the hospital if the halls of residence was cut off from electricity.
He said “We are here to protests the deliberate disconnection of light of our halls of residence from the electricity that was restored to UCH yesterday (Wednesday).
“When the Minister came here on Monday, he made a promise that power will be restored to UCH, the whole of UCH in 24 to 48hours. We were surprised to hear that we have been disconnected and we warned them that if there is light in UCH and no light in our hostels, we will shut down UCH itself.
“Yesterday (Wednesday) evening, light was restored to UCH and we currently do not have light. There is light in almost every part of UCH except our hostels. That will not happen, we are here until they restore our electricity. We will be here until they restore electricity and if they don’t restore it, in the next one month, we will continue to be here.”
He said the students have only shut the door against other people from entering the UCH but have been allowing emergency cases to have access.
“We have been passing emergency vehicles and allowing them to go in, we are gentle people and will not take laws into our hands.”
Also speaking, the Vice President, UI Medical Students Association, Meliat Adegoke said it was unfortunate that the students who took to the street in protest to ensure light was restored to the UCH are now the ones who were cut off from enjoying it.
She said “It is rather sad that the students that staged protest before light is restored to the UCH, We were the ones who stormed the street, screaming and shouting that they should give us light and now we are the ones who don’t have it.
“UCH light was restored since yesterday (Wednesday) and our halls of residence don’t have, yet we were the ones who protested the darkness in the streets. It is unjust, it is unfair.
“We are students, we are fighting for basic right and basic amenities, we don’t have light we don’t have water, we are struggling and it is not fair for people to see us like this and not do anything about our case. It is not right.
“We want the government to give us light. That is what we are asking for. We are paying school fees and all other fees. If we don’t pay, we can’t have our exams. We will be here to speak against this injustice and we will be here until they restore light to our hostels.”
In his remarks, the Senior Special Assistant to Oyo State Governor on Student Affairs, Comrade Victor Olojede urged the federal government to consider the students and ensure they have light in their hostels.
“For us as Oyo state government, we understand the plight of students and we feel it is their right to protest, when their right are been trampled upon and it is so sad that the Minister of Power came to the UCH some days back and assured student that light will be restored in the UCH and student environment within the UCH, but we discovered that the light came as promised but that the student hostels were disconnected from having electricity.
“So, we want to appeal that FG should intervene in this matter and resolve it on time. If it were to be an Oyo State issue, the state government would have resolved this amicably and electricity would have been restored.
When contact, the management of IBEDC said it has fulfill its part of agreement by reconnecting clinical part of UCH within 48hours, as promised.
It added that it was awaiting further directive from the management of UCH regarding the reconnection of other sections.
A message signed by the Managing Director, Francis Agoha reads in part “Following the successful intervention of the Honorable Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, and the agreements reached by both parties regarding the UCH disconnection issue, IBEDC has reconnected the clinical services section of UCH within the agreed 48-hour timeframe.
“We are now awaiting further directives from the management of UCH regarding the reconnection of other sections.”
