THE authorities of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) on Thursday shut down academic activities in the institution indefinitely.
The university, in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, Dr Benedicta Ehanire, attributed the decision to the refusal of the students to shift grounds on their demands.
The university also ordered students to vacate their hostels immediately.
“Following the refusal of students of the University of Benin to shift grounds on their demands for twenty-four hours supply of electricity and more, considered unrealistic by the university’s Senate, the university has shut down academic activities indefinitely,” the statement read.
“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.”
Students of the institution had on Wednesday taken to the streets, blocking the ever-busy Benin-Ore Highway, to protest weeks of power outages on campus.
The students, who had two weeks until their first-semester examination, said the situation was severely affecting their preparation.
The students also called for a downward review of fares by the UNIBEN shuttle service, which was increased with effect from 1st July 2024.
It will be recalled that the university was thrown into a blackout by the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) following the inability to reach an agreement over contentious electricity billings.
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-generating sets as well as rationalisation of power on the two campuses and hostels.
Eighteen-Eleven Media