Power Outage: Students Protest Over 100 Days Of Darkness In UCH Ibadan

Health/Wellness

Power Outage: Students Protest Over 100 Days Of Darkness In UCH Ibadan

Reported by Ojo Racheal

Protesting students of University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, on Monday, expressed displeasure to President Bola Tinubu through the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, over the persistent darkness in the teaching hospital.

The angry students decried the over 100 days of darkness in the institution, saying patients are not only dying, but the staff of the tertiary institution are also not finding the working conditions palatable, including the medical students.

Though the protesting students could not confirm the report that patients now resort to bringing their personal generating sets to supply power for their treatment in the hospital, they, however, told The Guardian that the situation of the unavailability of electricity had reached a stage where anything could happen.

"Any story told about the deplorable state of power in UCH cannot be far from the truth,” some of the students told the Guardian.

As the protest continues, Adelabu and the CMD, Jesse Otegbayo, are in a crucial meeting with stakeholders at the conference room of the institution to fashion out a solution to the epileptic power supply.

The college has been in darkness since October 2024, making it over 100 days as of today (Monday).

According to The Guardian, the students carried placards with different inscriptions such as “+100 Days of Darkness: Save UCH; Save ABH Hall; Save Falade Hall; Give Us Light; This Is Not How We Want To Live; Medical School Is Hard Enough—Give Us Light; All We Are Saying, Give Us Light,” among others.

Addressing the press, a former President of the Students Union Government, University of Ibadan, Samson Samuel, and a former Speaker of UI, Olamide Omotunde, both medical students, decried the situation in the college, saying, “We have had a series of meetings with the management of UCH, but nothing was done to restore electricity in the halls.”

Samuel said, “No light, no water. We shall continue this protest until our demands are met.”

Omotunde said, “We protested on January 26, 2025, to the State and Federal Secretariats, Agodi, Ibadan, with the hope that the management would restore it, but up till today, nothing has been done. That is why we decided, after 100 days, to protest over the non-availability of power.”

While the protest was ongoing, the Public Relations Officer of UCH, Mrs. Funmi Adetuyibi, was seen trying to calm the angry students, but she was rebuffed.