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ASUU Strike: Burglars loot students’ apartments

By Saheed Ibrahim

Students of tertiary institutions in the country, whose lecturers had been on strike for over 100 days, are now suffering another jeopardy as criminals are looting their property in private residences, off campus, The Hope investigation has shown .

Exclusive investigations by our reporter revealed that unknown criminals have targeted the residences of the students due to the prolonged strike embarked by ASUU.

Those mostly affected were students  who left some of their belongings behind for save keep by their host communities.

Besides, several house owners at the various universities’ communities are now compelling the students, many of whom theirs house rents have expired, to either renew their rents or vacate the apartments.

The Hope also gathered that this has been a recurrent decimal during long holidays or prolonged ASUU strike period.

Some of the affected students expressed their bitterness on their social media pages while some others spoke with The Hope.

A student of University of Ilorin, Adebowale Omoade revealed that he received the  news from his off-campus hostel that his room was burgled.

He said, “my room was burgled by unknown scavengers. My rug, gas cylinder, bed, shoes, fan, pressing iron and some clothes were carted away, leaving me with nothing.

Another student, Yahyah Babajide revealed that his room was burgled and almost everything in his room was carted away.

“The thieves that came to my place took almost everything; even cooking pots and bedsheets,” he disclosed.

For Thelma Ernest, the perpetrators left nothing in his room and also used his toilet.

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He lamented thus: “My room was cleaned out completely. TV set, stereos, center table, fan, rug and even the half bag of rice that was in my kitchen, they took all. They defecated in my toilet and didn’t flush”.

The Hope also gathered that a Villa at Medoline, Akungba Akoko was recently burgled with many of the students’ property carted away.

Meanwhile, some other students have been at logger heads with their landlords, who are demanding renewal of rents or total evacuation of their property.

Deborah Adeola of Ekiti State University told The Hope that her landlord increased rent a week before the strike began from N70, 000 to N110,000, adding that the man started demanding renewal in March.

“He didn’t even pity me. He first increased from N45-N50,000. Then during COVID, he increased to N70,000.

Then this year February, he increased to N110,000.

“I told him he should forget me renewing the rent because the house isn’t worth the price. It is surrounded with bushes,

No light, no good facilities. We pay for fuel for water to run but pumping machine isn’t good again and he is not ready to repair”.

A student having extra year, who does not want her name in print, revealed that her landlord has been disturbing her to pay her rent, despite living in the house since she gained admission in the school six years ago.

She said the landlord first increased the rent and since she has just one semester to stay, the man asked her to pack out of the house.

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For Rebecca Akintunde, her landlord refused to repair the hostel but always demanding rent.

“Poor electricity, bad road, environment hazard and collapse of part of the building during heavy rain fall.

“Whenever there is flood, water enters the hostel and destroys our property. Now, the landlord has provided fence for the hostel but he still insists we pack out for proper renovations and has also increased the house rent.

“I even heard that he is trying to break into students’ rooms because we have refused to pack our loads,” she lamented.

As at today, there is no indication as regards when the strike will be over. While the Federal Government had remained mum, ASUU, last week, stated that once the UTAS payment platform is approved, the strike will be called off.

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ASUU Strike: Burglars  loot students’ apartments

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