Passengers stranded as FUOYE students protest over incessant power outage

Students of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State (FUOYE) on Tuesday staged for the second time a peaceful protest over poor power supply in the community.

The students had in May staged a similar protest over the epileptic power supply but said it achieved no result.

The visibly-angry students carried placards with inscriptions such as “Say No to NEPAPHOBIA”; “We need light”, ” Bring Back Our Light”

The protest which lasted for almost four hours led to traffic gridlock along the Ikole-Kogi-Abuja federal highway, with many travellers stranded.

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One of the protesting students, who spoke to newsmen Adekola Ayomide Francis, a 300-level student of Accounting Department and President of the Faculty of Management Sciences, lamented the poor power supply in the community.

“I think it is high time the students let their voices out. We have been suffering and smiling in this community.

“The major aim of this protest is light in Oye-Ekiti. This is a student environment where we need light. Without light we cannot read our books, we don’t have access to the internet.

“This is a student environment where we need light and other infrastructural facilities as well. There are no good waters, there is no borehole and we claim to have a government who has the interest of all citizens at heart,” he said.

Also, the President of the Students Union Government, Oluwaseun Awodola revealed that the power outage has led to insecurity in the community.

“The generality of Oye is suffering from poor power supply. It came to our notice that our students are being molested at night, our students are being beaten in the night, and our students are being gang robbed in the night because we don’t have light.

“Everywhere in FUOYE is dark. Our students keep charging at filling station if a little light tear up more than 50 students will be gone. We don’t want mass death in FUOYE. What we want is a stable power supply. Today is a confrontational protest.”

When contacted the University Public Relations Officer, Mr Godffrey Bakji commending the students for the peaceful protest, adding that the university was not in control of power.

He said, “The power or whatsoever is not controlled by the university so you don’t disrupt academic activities because you want to cry out to the government. Besides power is privatised. Of course, they conducted themselves well.

“They should allow other activities to go on since they felt they want to pull out of lectures today for reasons best known to them if pulling out will bring power and they have said until a notable government official talks to them.

The Commissioner of Police, Amba Asuquo described the protest as peaceful, saying officers of the command were on ground during the demonstration.