Vehicular motion was hampered and commuters had been stranded on Wednesday as college students of the College of Benin blocked the Benin/Ore Freeway in protest over an influence outage within the establishment’s campuses in Ugbowo and Ekhewan.
Our correspondent gathered that the college was thrown into darkness following its incapacity to succeed in an settlement with the Benin Electrical energy Distribution Firm over perceived contentious electrical energy billing.
The administration of the establishment was stated to have expressed dismay over the upward overview of its month-to-month electrical energy invoice from N80m to N280m.
This compelled the college to resort to different energy turbines and rationalisation on the 2 campuses.
The protest, which started early within the morning, noticed college students carrying placards and chanting slogans as they blocked the freeway.
A protesting pupil, who merely gave his identify as John, stated that the hour of electrical energy provide day by day had turn out to be largely insufficient and had made finding out very discouraging.
He stated, “We solely have one hour of electrical energy every single day since this subject began. We’re bored with finding out at the hours of darkness.
“We’d like electrical energy to learn and put together for our exams. The college administration must take duty and repair this subject.”
One other pupil who gave her identify as Sarah stated, “We is not going to go away the freeway till one thing is finished. We are able to’t afford to fail our exams due to the college’s negligence.”
A driver, who gave his identify as Osas, stated that the protest had prompted him to lose revenue as he could not be capable of obtain his goal for the day.
“If I knew this was going to occur, I’d not ply this route as a result of it prompted me to lose revenue and I could not be capable of attain my goal for the day.
“I hope the administration of the college will handle the scholars’ protest in order that this case could be delivered to an finish. Many individuals are additionally stranded and so they will be unable to go to work or their locations of enterprise.
An offended commuter, who refused to reveal his identify stated, “I’m purported to be at work proper now, however I’ve been caught right here for hours.
“I perceive the scholars’ plight, however they should discover a higher option to protest.”
The rainfall didn’t deter the scholars as they vowed to remain on till the subject was resolved.
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the establishment, Benedicta Ehanire, stated a gathering of the Senate was ongoing on easy methods to resolve the problem. The decision of the assembly was not communicated to our correspondent as of the time of submitting this report.