The Senate of the University of Benin, UNIBEN, on Wednesday threatened to shut down the institution if the dialogue to end the ongoing student protest fails to yield positive results.
NewsNow recalls that students took to the streets early in the day to protest weeks of power outages on the campus among other issues.
The students, with only two weeks to their first-semester examination, said the situation was severely affecting their preparations.
A statement issued by the institution’s Public Relations Officer, Dr Benedicta Ehanire, said the Senate, arising from an emergency meeting, described the students’ actions as unfortunate.
The statement revealed the Senate was particularly concerned with the situation whereby students blocked the federal highway, causing hardship to travellers and other commuters.
“In the meantime, some members of the decision-making body have been mandated to continue with dialogue with the students on their unrealistic demand for 24 hours of electricity supply they enjoyed before the university was disconnected by BEDC.
“This is as a result of the disputed monthly bill of over N250 million slammed on the institution by the electricity company.
“The senate also described the two other complaints by the students about high costs of food and transportation as out of the university’s control,” the statement said.
The statement disclosed that the Senate resolved that if dialogue with the students failed and the protest persisted, it would have no other option than to shut down the institution.