Just In: UNIBEN Management Shut Down Academic Activities

The management of the University of Benin has halted all academic activities indefinitely and ordered the students to vacate their hotels immediately.

Naijaonpoint reports that students of the institution had protested on Wednesday over the rationing of electricity, among other grievances.

They blocked the Benin-Ore highway, which caused gridlock and untold hardship to commuters.

Some of the students on Wednesday said they would not leave the highway until their demands were met.

However, in a statement by the institution’s Public Relations officer, Benedicta Ehanire, on Thursday, the management said the Senate of the institution held a meeting on Wednesday to meet with the students to see how the issue could be resolved.

Ehanire said the students’ unrealistic demands necessitated management action.

The statement read, “Following the refusal of students of the University of Benin to shift grounds on their demands for 24-hour supply of electricity and more, considered unrealistic by the university’s Senate, the university has shut down academic activities indefinitely.

“Students are to vacate the hostels immediately while all the relevant units of the university are to take note and comply.

“However, non-teaching staff and staff on essential duties are not affected by the shutdown.”

The Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) PLC recently disconnected the institution as a result of the bill of over N250 million slammed on the institution by the electricity company.

The institution was formerly paying N80 million, and it has not been able to afford the new bill, which caused a blackout in the school and brought hardship to the students.