The Senate of the University of Benin has announced an indefinite shutdown of academic activities in response to ongoing student protests.
This decision was conveyed in a statement by the institution’s Public Relations Officer, Benedicta Ehanire, on Thursday. The university has also instructed 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.
The statement further clarified that while students must leave the hostels, non-teaching staff and those on essential duties are exempt from this directive.
POLITICS NIGERIA recalls that students of UNIBEN took to the streets on Wednesday, blocking the busy Benin-Ore Highway in protest against prolonged power outages on their campus. The lack of electricity has significantly disrupted their preparations for the upcoming first-semester examinations, scheduled to begin in two weeks.
The protesting students are demanding a continuous 24-hour electricity supply, a request that the university management has deemed unrealistic.
