Students of the University of Jos, popularly known as UNIJOS, staged a protest on Tuesday over a prolonged electricity outage affecting hostels on campus.
According to a report by Punch Newspapers, the students said they had been without electricity for about a week, forcing many to endure poor living conditions and disruptions to their academic activities.
Some protesters said the situation had become unbearable due to the lack of electricity and water supply in the hostels. They added that toilets and other facilities had also remained unclean because water pumping machines could not function without power.
One of the students, Felix Bala, said the blackout started shortly after students resumed for the current academic session.
“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,” he said.
The protesting students accused university authorities of failing to respond despite repeated complaints. They warned that demonstrations would continue until electricity and other essential services were restored.
Another student, who declined to be named, said some off-campus students had appealed to the protesters to suspend the action and allow management to address the issue, but the appeal was rejected.
Efforts to get reactions from the Students’ Union Government President, Senator Younglan Talyoung, and other university officials were unsuccessful at the time the report was filed. The Dean of Students’ Affairs, Prof. Chris Piwuna, could also not be reached as his phone was reportedly switched off.
