Concerns over poor hostel condition in Uniport

Poor hostel condition is raising concern about the safety of students at the University of Port Harcourt. Many students living in the building constructed by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC) have said they were accommodated in a dilapidated hostel. The hostel was reportedly constructed by the commission about two years ago as part of […]

Poor hostel condition is raising concern about the safety of students at the University of Port Harcourt. Many students living in the building constructed by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC) have said they were accommodated in a dilapidated hostel.

The hostel was reportedly constructed by the commission about two years ago as part of its intervention programme in the Niger Delta region. The students said, however, that there are a lot of construction defects in the hostel indicating that the project was poorly handled.

Our reporter found that there was poor drainage system in the one-storey hostel, with water not flowing into the toilet tanks; the electrical wiring poorly done while the paint on the walls has also gone bad.

One of the students in the hostel, Ike Calista, said: “The problem we have in the hostel is about the bathroom and the toilet, they are very bad. There is no water supply in both. We want the drainage system in the hostel to be improved upon.” 

Another student who simply gave her name as Joy also lamented that there were no enough channels to drain water out of the bathroom, adding that students had to flush stagnant water anytime the bathroom flooded. 

“The hostel is not good. The toilets and the drainage system are very bad and we want the school authority to fix them. We also want them to look into the electrical wiring in the hostel because it is a shoddy job. 

“Also, there is no fan in the hostel. Good hostels are supposed to have all these facilities working properly,’’ she said.

Kavin Owuru, another occupant said: “Everything in the hostel is in a very bad shape. The toilet is very bad, the drainage system is poorly constructed so water is not flowing well. 

“We are afraid because this building may collapse one day. The structure is very bad and something urgent should be done about it,’’ he said.

He urged the school authority to carry out total renovation of the hostel.

Security guards at the hostel said the authorities were doing their best to improve on the condition of the hostel. 

“We are given a mandate to take care of the hostel and ensure that there is law and order. The hostel is not in good shape. Some of the female occupants of the hostel take their bath outside. The toilet drainage system is bad; the hostel gets flooded anytime it rains due to leaking roof,” one of the security guards said.

Another security guard also expressed displeasure over the poor state of the hostel, adding that the students contribute money to repair electricity faults.  

Our reporter learnt that the former acting Managing Director of NDDC, Mrs Ibim Semenitari, had refused to commission the hostel when it was completed about two years ago. 

She directed that the contractor should return and repair all the mistakes found in the hostel. Nothing, however was done and the hostel had remained in a sorry state since then.

Dr William Wodi, Deputy Registrar in charge of Information in the university, said the hostel was due for commissioning but the former managing director of the NDDC openly declared before the management of the university that the hostel was sub-standard and that she would not allow students to move into it.

He stated that the former MD directed that some structural work should be done, stressing that the university’s Department of Civil Engineering and Physical Planning was supposed to liaise with similar body in the NDDC to identify what the structural defects were and rectify them but that nothing was done.