- We plan to fumigate the rooms – Mgt
Students of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, have raised the alarm over bedbug attacks on their hostels, saying that the situation has become unbearable.
The students accused the OAU management of insensitivity to their plights, wondering why the university authorities would want them to resort to protest before carrying out their responsibilities.
According to the President of the OAU Students’ Union, Mr. Oyekan Ibukun, who spoke with our correspondent on the telephone on Sunday, the students’ hostels have been infested with bedbugs.
He said that the situation had been affecting the students’ wellbeing. Ibukun noted that several letters had been written to the school’s Division of Students Affairs and that text messages had been sent to the former Acting Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Anthony Elujoba, on the need for the management to fumigate the hostels, but no step had been taken to address the issue.
He said, “The population of bedbugs in our hostels is alarming and the situation is already affecting us (students). We have informed the DSA and I have also notified the acting VC about this, but nothing has been done to fumigate our hostels.
The management has been too relaxed. They (school authorities) are making the union leaders to appear useless.
“The management is not taking this issue seriously and these bedbugs are tormenting us. I have had to call the VC personally on this issue, still no action has been taken as I am speaking with you. They keep telling us that they would do it.
The hostel is bushy and they are yet to cut the grasses. I stay in the hostel and the bedbugs are attacking me, too. We don’t want to confront them and we don’t want to make them do it by force. We appeal to them to fumigate the hostels and clear the bushes around without further delay.”
The students also complained of poor water supply to their hostels, saying, “We also suffer and lack clean water. The pumps that supply water to our hostels are already worn out and they need to be changed. Imagine, we are still using pumps installed since the 1970s and 1980s. So, we want the management to do the needful and save students from further bedbug attacks and supply of dirty water.”
But the school management said that plans were underway to fumigate the hostels before the newly admitted students resume on campus, arguing that there was no way the hostels would be fumigated with students around. When contacted for reaction, the university’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Abiodun Olanrewaju, said the management had already cut the grasses in the hostels before the freshmen resumed.
Olanrewaju added that the management considered fumigating the hostels without affecting the students around. He noted that the new students brought in new mattresses devoid of bedbugs, stressing that there was no way the insects could infect new mattresses.
The management is nottaking this issue seriously and these bedbugs are tormenting us. I have to call the VC personally on this issue, still no action has been taken
He said, “Some students, who are supposed to remove their mattresses and vacate the hostels, have not been doing it. The management is being magnanimous with them or else, their mattresses would have been thrown out.
“But I can assure you that the management is trying to see how they can fumigate the hostels without affecting the students that are around.” The school resumed from its sessional break on April 30 with the arrival of new students while the old students are expected to resume on May 14.
