Unilag Students barred from entering hostel

The students were asked to evacuate their rooms because the school will be hosting some ECOWAS students.

Some University of Lagos, UNILAG, students have been barred from entering their hostel, according to report by TheNation.

Residents of the Henry Carr Hall at the (UNILAG) were on Monday, January 18, were denied access into their hostel.

Electricity was cut off around 11am and water supply stopped at 4pm. The hall has three blocks of rooms and houses Masters and Doctorate degree students.

It was reported that the students were served a quit notice on January 12 which was effective on January 14. The students, however, had not returned from holidays when the notice was served.

But when a new notice was served, the date had changed.

The notice reads:

“Following the memorandum received from the Dean of Students Affairs (a photo copy is hereby attached) today concerning the notice of evacuation from the Hall of Residence, we, members of the Hall Management Committee (HMC), wish to formally appeal to you and all the students to please obey the directive of the Dean. You will assist us to be instrumental to its obedience because it has to be obeyed immediately. The directive has been given since Monday, January 11, 2016. Administratively, we expect everyone to have evacuated the Hall latest on Monday, January 18, 2016.”

This information infuriated the students whose rent was supposed to elapse in March.

The students were asked to evacuate their rooms because the school will be hosting some ECOWAS students. They eventually had a meeting with some university officials, including hall executives and hostel officers.

A student, who did not want to be named, said the executives were still trying to come to an agreement that would favour everyone.

“The students were told to vacate the hostel but the session is not over. Some of us are not through with our exams and some of us come from long distances. We want the school authority to allow us stay till January ending. I believe they were in a tight corner yesterday because of the ECOWAS students’ arrival. We would be having a congress tonight (Tuesday) to discuss our options”, he said.

A female student, who is yet to begin her exams, wondered how she is going to cope.

“Where do I start looking for accommodation now when my exams are close by and how do I combine searching for accommodation and reading for exams? I don’t really know what to do,” she said.