Students of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, on Thursday, staged a fresh protest over a prolonged power outage, barricading the office of the Chief Medical Director of the University College Hospital,Prof. Jesse Otegbayo, for several hours.
The aggrieved students carried placards with inscriptions such as “100+ Days of Darkness: Save UCH”; “Medical School Is Hard Enough – Give Us Light”; “We Are Tired of Studying With Street Lights”; “This Is Not How We Want to Live”; and “All We Are Saying, Give Us Light.”
The PUNCH reports that UCH had been in darkness since October 2024 due to outstanding debts owed to the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC). The facility was, however, reconnected to the national grid on Monday following the intervention of the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu.
It was gathered that students had also staged a protest on Monday while a meeting was ongoing between the minister, UCH management, and IBEDC officials at the hospital’s conference room in Ibadan.
Speaking with The PUNCH, President of the University of Ibadan Students’ Union Government, Bolaji Aweda, said the protest was to demand the full restoration of electricity to their hostels.
“We are here because we want the management to restore power. That is the simple demand,”he said.
Editor-in-Chief of the Union of Campus Journalists, University of Ibadan, Tijani Abdulkabir, also lamented the prolonged blackout.
“After Monday’s meeting, the minister assured us that power would be restored within 24 to 48 hours. Based on that promise, students dispersed. But to our shock, while electricity was restored to UCH complex on Wednesday evening, our hostels remain in total darkness,” he said.
“As you can see, the protest has lasted for hours, and it will continue until our demands are met.”
Addressing the protesting students, the Provost of the College of Medicine, Prof. Temidayo Ogundiran, said the power outage was due to a long-standing debt of nearly ₦500 million owed to IBEDC.
“UCH and the College of Medicine are considered one entity by IBEDC. The company does not recognize separate units like Alexander Brown Hall (ABH) or Ayodele Falase Hall. The truth is that until the full debt is paid, power cannot be fully restored,” Ogundiran stated.
He, however, assured the students that electricity restoration would be done in phases, starting with areas critical to patient care.
“The agreement reached with IBEDC, through the intervention of the Minister of Power, is to restore power in phases. The Clinical Area, where patients are treated, was prioritized and reconnected first,” he explained.
He said, “The next phase will cover other areas, including students’ hostels. We understand the frustration, but this is a complex problem that requires careful planning and resources.”
Ogundiran urged the students to exercise patience, assuring them that efforts were ongoing to resolve the issue permanently.
