The University of Benin (UNIBEN) administration suspended academic activities indefinitely on Thursday, July 4, 2024. According to a statement issued by the university’s Public Relations Officer, Dr. Benedicta Ehanire, the decision was made due to the students’ failure to shift grounds on their demands.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), students marched to the streets on Wednesday, July 3, 2024 to protest weeks of power outages at school. They blocked the ever-busy Benin-Ore Highway.

The students, who had only two weeks until their first-semester exam, felt the circumstance was significantly impacting their preparation. The students also demanded that the UNIBEN shuttle service lower its transport fares, which were recently increased on July 1, 2024.

According to NAN, the Benin Electrical Distribution Company (BEDC) imposed a blackout on the university after failing to reach an agreement on controversial electrical billings.

The monthly bill was claimed to have increased from around N80 million to between N200 and N280 million, prompting the university to employ power generators and rationalize power on the two campuses and hostels.

When a NAN correspondent spoke with the protesting students amid heavy rain, they were adamant about continuing the rampage until their demands were met. However, in the closure notification made available to NAN, Ehanire referred to the students’ demand for 1,125 hours of electricity as impossible.

“Following the insistence of students at the University of Benin to shift grounds on their demands for 24 hours of electricity and more, which the university’s Senate deemed unrealistic, the university has suspended academic activities indefinitely.”

“Students are to vacate the hostels immediately, and all relevant university units must take note and comply.” “However, non-teaching staff and staff performing essential duties are not affected by the shutdown,” added the university spokesperson. (NAN)

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