In what appears to be a mother-of-all protests, about three thousand indigenes of two host communities of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, UNN, stormed the University on Monday and held workers hostage for over 7 hours.
Every entrance to the administrative building of the UNN was blocked by the protesters from Owere-Eze Orba and Ajuonu Obukpa communities.
Some youths from Owerre-Eze Orba had last two weeks protested the disconnection of the community from power supply by the university.
However, sensing that the earlier protest was not yielding any result, elderly men and women, accompanied by several youths from the two communities made it impossible for any visitor or staff to gain entrance into the admin block, housing the office of the Vice Chancellor, Prof Bartho Okolo.
Mr. Ndukwe Agbo, the group leader, told the journalists that for the past eight months, the university disconnected their light, and that every attempt by the community for the light to be restored ended on empty promises.
“For over eight months, we have been in darkness. The university disconnected us on the excuse that with our light, the university would experience low voltage; they said we should buy our own transformers. We have done that, but reconnecting us has remained a problem”, he said.
He continued that the problem started since Prof Bartho Okolo became VC.
“We have decided to sleep here unless the university immediately reconnects our electricity. We cannot continue to stay in darkness”, he added.
Also speaking, the leader of the women, Mrs Nwachukwu Eze lamented,
“I don’t know what we have done to the present VC that he is unleashing wickedness on the communities that donated land freely to the university. We will stay here until the university tells us when our light will be restored.
“The university has failed in all the issues contained in the pact, no water, no employment to our people”.
When the officials tried to calm down the protesters, the latter continued shouting: “we don’t want any talk, go and reconnect the light”.
The tense situation later attracted the attention of the chairman of Nsukka Local Government Area, Mr. Tony Ugwu and his counterpart from Udenu Mr Godwin Abonyi.
Addressing journalists after a meeting with the UNN management, which lasted about three hours, Abonyi described the situation as unfortunate.
Abonyi promised to get in touch with the state government in terms of the matter and added that the state rural electrification board might be involved to connect the transformers of the communities, if UNN finally to do so.
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/53419.html
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