UNIJOS students protest prolonged power outage, demand urgent action

Students of the University of Jos on Tuesday staged a protest over a prolonged power outage in their hostels.

It was gathered that the students had been without electricity for the past week.

Some of the students who spoke during the protest said the situation had made life unbearable, noting that the absence of basic amenities had disrupted their studies and affected their overall well-being since the beginning of the current academic session.

A student, Felix Bala, who spoke during the protest, said, “Since our resumption, we have not had power in our hostels.

“We were told that power was cut off. We demand the immediate restoration of electricity.”

The students expressed frustration that, despite repeated complaints to the university authorities, no concrete action had been taken to resolve the problem.

They warned that the protest would continue until their demands were met.

Bala added that the protest followed days of complaints over the lack of electricity and water supply.

He said the situation began last week when students noticed there was no electricity or running water, while toilets and other facilities in the hostels were left unclean.

He explained that the water supply depended on electricity to power pumping machines, adding that students waited from Thursday through Monday without any improvement.

Another student, who spoke anonymously, said some off-campus students had appealed to the protesters to end the blockade and allow the university authorities to address the issue, but the appeal was unsuccessful.

As of the time of filing this report, efforts to reach the Students’ Union Government President, Senator Younglan Talyoung, and other university officials were unsuccessful.

The Dean of Students’ Affairs of the institution, Prof. Chris Piwuna, was also not immediately available for comment, as his phone indicated that it was switched off.