50 UNN students to face disciplinary panel over hostel racketeering

At least  50 students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN will face the university’s disciplinary committee over their alleged involvement  in hostel racketeering.

It was gathered that the suspected racketeerers pay the official accommodation fee of N25,000 to the University Management for a bed space only to sell it out  at an exorbitant rate of N150,000 and above.

The Dean, Students’ Affairs of the university, Prof Edwin Omeje,  who confirmed the incident, described the act by the racketeerers as “wickedness.” He said that the culprits would never go unpunished. 

“Some students get hostel spaces and sell them at exorbitant prices.

“About 50 students have been identified and will soon face the university disciplinary committee. They pay N25, 000 and advertise their rooms at  the rate of over N150, 000. It is wickedness and against the university ethics.”

He said the university is making efforts within the available resources to provide best accommodation to its students.

According to him, “Fund is scarce. The VC is passionate about accommodation for our students. With the consent of the Governing Council, an agreement was entered into with a firm that is doing about 13, 000 standard bed spaces for us at Nsukka campus.

“The project is the first of its kind in the whole country. It is the same in Enugu campus where we have the presidential hostels that are almost being completed.

“Recently the VC secured a TETFund hostel project. It is being roofed. In a short moment, hostel accommodation scarcity at Nsukka campus would have been reduced drastically. Note also that our hostels, apart from the PG hostel which we changed from Nkruma to Odili, were built in 1960s.”

• Special Assistant Reveals Job Racketeering Scheme Involving FCC Chairperson
• EFCC Arrests Over 70 Students in Midnight Raid Near OAU Campus
• One Yr Anniversary: Our dream is to make SUMAS a leading Institution for Medical and Applied Sciences education – VC
• Police Officers Face Disciplinary Action for Assault in Kwara State
• NPF Committee to Examine Senior Officers’ Disciplinary Cases

• UNN VC Details Administration’s Triumph Over Unfinished Projects
• UNN Alumni Need to Roar More _HRH, Igwe Ikechukwu Asadu

On the cost of maintaining the hostels, he said, “The university Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, cannot maintain these buildings. What it takes us to take a student in a hostel for ten months is about N200, 000. It is a conservative estimate. This university pays a bill of N80 million for electricity every month. We have a 1500KVA generator that gulps a drum of diesel an hour. There is another one at Franco that gulps same. The alternative energy is still very expensive. Honestly, it is the uninformed that will tackle the university instead of encouraging it in its efforts to provide conducive learning environment for our students.”

Our reporter gathered that hostel accommodation has become a lingering problem for the students of the University over the years.