EBONYI VARSITY STUDENTS PROTEST LACK OF POWER SUPPLY

By NBF News

BY PETER OKUTU
ABAKALIKI - NO fewer than 1,000 undergraduates of Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, yesterday staged a peaceful protest to express their displeasure over poor infrastructural facilities, epileptic power and inadequate water supply which have been plaguing the university community for some time now.

The students, who were seen chanting songs and carrying placards with the inscription 'no water, no light, our ladies are smelling', 'why should the SUG president call the police for us', 'VC we need water oh', barricaded the gate leading to the College of Health Science, CHS, campus, as motorists were seen either trying to park or making u-turns to avoid falling victims to the angry demonstrators.

The students said:  'The problem is that we don't have water. We don't have light. It is our hostel mates that usually climb the pole to repair the light if necessary, the day before yesterday. For three days now, we have not eaten because we don't have water to cook our food.

'Despite the five boreholes in the school there is still no water. We have not taken our bath since morning and we decided to abort lectures because of the ugly situation in school.

'We have about three faculties on this campus. They should start working the borehole immediately. We are lacking many things.

'All the toilet facilities within the campus are very bad. Our girls are smelling because of lack of water. If you enter our toilet you cannot even breathe. This is not the first time we are complaining about this despite the fact that we pay our hostel fee.

'We have even paid our hostel fees but still nothing has been done to improve the condition of student on this campus. We don't have toilet. We are dying. People have been stooling here and there. All the students in schools hostel are protesting including male and females. We are about 1000 protesting.'

However, appeals made by the Dean of students of EBSU, Dr. Hillary Eze, fell on deaf ears as the protest lasted five hours in front of the campus gate.

In a reaction, the Dean stated that an agency, Rural Water and Sanitation Agency, RUWASA, had been mandated to carry out comprehensive repairs of all the faulty boreholes within the campus environment, adding that other palliatives to cushion the effect of the water scarcity had also been put in place.

He appealed to the students to return to their hostels so as not to allow miscreants hijack the peaceful protest.