Host Communities Barricade UNN Admin Block

The people of Owerre-
eze Orba and Ajuona Obukpa last Monday barricaded the administrative building of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, to protest the disconnection of their electricity by the university.
The protesters numbering around 3,000 youths and women made it impossible for visitors and staff members to gain entry to the block housing the vice-chancellor’s office for about seven hours.
Speaking with newsmen, the leader of youths, Mr Ndukwe Agbo, said that for the past eight months, the university disconnected their electricity and every attempt by the community to reconnect it ended on empty promises.
“For over eight months, we have been in darkness. The university disconnected us on the excuse that, with our light it would experience low voltage and we should buy our own transformers.
“We have bought our transformers but reconnecting us becames a problem,’’ he said.
Agbo expressed regrets that the same university that had an agreement to provide its host communities with electricity for donating their land had put them in darkness.
“We have decided to sleep here unless the university immediately reconnects our electricity. We cannot continue to stay in darkness,’’ he said.
Also speaking, the leader of women, Mrs Nwachukwu Eze, said it was unfortunate that the university had refused to keep the agreement it entered with the host communities.
“The university has failed in all the issues contained in the pact; no water, no employment of our people,” she said.
Efforts by the Deputy Vice- Administration, Prof. Malachy Okwueze, to address the protesters failed as they continued chorusing ‘‘we don’t want any talk, go and reconnected the light’’.
This situation attracted the chairmen of Nsukka and Udenu local government areas who came to control the people and meet with the university authorities.
They latter told newsmen that the situation was caused by misinformation on the part of the university staff.
The two chairmen promised to involve the state rural electrification board in the connection with the transformers in the two communities.