By Ikhili Ebalu, Benin City
For the over 3,500 post-UTME candidates who sat for the examination in the University of Benin, UNIBEN, on Tuesday, December 8, the possibility of them getting admission may be a ruse as the university announced on Wednesday that its servers had collapsed.
The university, in a terse Short Messaging Service, SMS, sent out on Wednesday afternoon, it directed the affected candidates, who came from all parts of the country to write the examination, to return to the university for another test.
“If you know anyone that wrote post utme exam today 8th December 2020 @ict hall UGBOWO, tell the person to come back from any state or city he or she is. UNIBEN server failed for applicants that wrote 9am &10.30am. Authority have tried their best to call some students but their phone off. Tell ur love ones…”, the message on the university’s SMS platform read.
A source in the university, who spoke to the Nigerian Tribune on the condition of anonymity, said that the university authorities might be economical with the truth as ” the servers collapsed for most of yesterday”.
“This is a major crisis. How do you get all the affected candidates to come back. What about those who came from the far North and other states to write the test? I wonder why the university management is acting as if the University of Benin is meant only for Benin City. If you ask the candidates to come back, who bears the cost? How do you handle the risks of travelling?”, the source quarried.
The source suggested that the university authorities should find a means of ” using the UME scores of the affected candidates and their SSCE results to get cumulative scores for the candidates. This is a university environment and we should be able to think outside the box”.
Meanwhile, the University of Benin is on complete blackout as the main source of electricity supply to the institution has been cut off.
In a statement issued on Wednesday evening and endorsed by Dr. Benedicta Ehanire, the university said that the power outage was as a result of the crisi in the neighbouring community of Ihovbor, where the restive youths cut off the source of electricity
“This is to inform members of the university of Benin Community that the present power outage on Campus is as a result of a Community unrest at Ihovbor, the main source of power supply to the University. (The Community youths have forced power outage due to a Community clash). It is hoped that normalcy would be restored soonest. Inconveniences are regretted”, the statement read.
It would be recalled that for several weeks, UNIBEN had been without electricity due to a major fault in the Grid supplying the university.
Electricity was however, restored last week before the restive youths cut it off again.