EBSU Students Stage Peaceful Protest, Block Abakaliki-Enugu Highway Over Eight Months of No Electricity

By Nabob Ogbonna, Abakaliki

Students of Ebonyi State University (EBSU) on Tuesday blocked the Abakaliki-Enugu highway to protest the lack of electricity supply for over eight months at the Ishieke axis, an area that serves as a hostel for many students of the institution.

The students carried placards with inscriptions such as: “We are tired of begging for light; for eight months we have not had electricity in Ishieke. We need light now. We will not relent until we get electricity.”

Other signs read: “We cannot study at night. Governor Francis Nwifuru, please help us. We spend at least 300 naira daily to charge our phones with generator vendors.”

Ernest Nwedeh, speaking on behalf of the protesting students, appealed to Governor Francis Nwifuru to intervene. He said the students have endured the lack of electricity for over eight months, leaving them without hope.

Nwedeh stated, “We are students of Ebonyi State University (EBSU), and for more than eight months, we have had no electricity in the Ishieke area. That is why we decided to stage this peaceful protest. We are calling on Governor Francis Nwifuru to come to our rescue. We are in serious trouble here.”

“This is not the first time we have raised this issue. Previously, the Dean of Students’ Affairs promised to address the problem, but nothing was done. That is why we decided to repeat our protest. We need electricity to study at night and pass our exams.”

Nwedeh also highlighted the financial burden caused by the outage: “The hardship we are undergoing is severe. Many of us have lost our phones to generator vendors, and virtually every student here spends at least 300 naira daily to charge phones in this current economic climate. We will continue protesting until this issue is resolved.”

The protest disrupted vehicular movement along the highway for over two hours, according to reports obtained by Insideoutnews.