Bushes and snakes takes over Uniben Medical Students Hostel (Pixs)

Bushes and snakes takes over Uniben Medical Students Hostel

This was shared by the University of Benin Medical Students Association (UBEMSA) official Twitter handle…….

Clinical students hostel which houses the clinical students of the university of Benin have been neglected by the school authorities. The whole surroundings covered by bushes. Exposing Medical students to dangerous reptiles and poor health.

The University of Benin Medical Students have been victims of intense marginalization, high-powered politics and systematic disdain by the school authorities.

They Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry where muscled and cheated out of the NDDC Hostel built to accommodate them by the Federal Government Parastatal the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in 2013.

This was authoritatively reported by the Vanguard Newspaper below…

“FOR the over 800 medical students of the University of Benin who have been faced with accommodation problem, succour has come to them following the construction of 186 rooms hostel complex by the management of the Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The project which was conceived and awarded in 2004 was left fallow until the coming of the present board of the NDDC. It cost over N1.3 billion.

Edo State Commissioner for NDDC, Barr. Henry Okhuarobo while inspecting the project expressed happiness that the project was almost completed, and would help to alleviate the accommodation problem of the university. According to him, “although this project is one of those yet to be completed, hopefully we are delivering this project next month, but the target date which we set for ourselves was this month, but because of the volume of work and to minimize errors, the contractor has said that July would be the best time for delivery. “You will recall that this project was awarded initially in 2004 and had lain fallow for many years until last year when the present board of NDDC started fast-tracking the project. We are happy and you can see for yourselves and come to your conclusion what you are seeing in UNIBEN Medical Students’ Hostel where we are standing now. “The capacity of this hostel is 186 rooms to accommodate over 800 students. We also have other facilities like computer room, super markets, water borehole, etc.”

It was to accommodate medical students who were frequently thrown and locked out of the regular students hostels during holidays (remember medical students do not go on holidays). It was in a bid to solve this problem that the NDDC hostel was built for them but immediately after the completion and commissioning of the hostel in 2014 by the then Governor of Delta state Emmanuel Uduaghan (he only commissioned it), the school authorities started singing discordant tones and used high-powered politics and conspiracy theories to cheat medical students ownership of the hostel. There are even instances where medical students are denied application to the hostel or are outrightly locked out. This problem has generated bad blood among the School of Medicine, Basic Medical Sciences, Pharmacy departments and the School authorities.

More of the bushes…

When will this problem end?