Electricity Supply Goes Off in UCH for 82 Days, Students Protest

Hundreds of students from the University of Ibadan in Oyo State have staged a peaceful protest against the 82-day power outage at the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan.

Though the Students’ Union Government (SUG) President has called off the protest, UCH, the teaching hospital where medical students from UI are trained, has suffered an 82-day-long power outage, leaving most of the activities that bank on power supply in a state of collapse.

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Students say power outage in UCH is common. For years, UCH has been in the debts, to the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC. 

Last year November, IBEDC cut off UCH electricity, after accusing the hospital of failing to pay a debt valuing at over N400m.

But this was just few months before IBEDC cut off the power supply to the hospital in March 2024 due to unpaid electricity bills.

The electricity distribution company also disconnected the hospital’s power supply in November 2023 for the same reason. 

PIJAlance learnt that the power supply has still not been restored, hitherto.

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To this, students from the University staged a peaceful protest early Wednesday morning to express their dissatisfaction with the situation at the hospital.

The students were led by the President of the Students’ Union, SU, Bolaji Aweda.

Aweda stated that students of the institution have been directly affected.

“We are protesting against what is happening. And, of course, our students are affected.

“For 82 days, there has been no light at UCH, and this is due to the inability of UCH to pay its electricity bill to IBEDC.

“IBEDC has demanded that UCH settle its debt before they will restore power,” he said.

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