Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Rainstorm has destroyed at least seven buildings in the University of Ibadan, including the Students’ Union Building (SUB), two halls of residence, and Chemistry Laboratory of International School in the institution.
The rainstorm wreaked the havoc on Friday night during a downpour in many parts of Ibadan, which saw many residents of the state capital trek long distances as a result of the traffic congestion on the road which lasted for many hours.
The affected structures in the Nigeria’s premier university were badly damaged.
Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration), Prof Emilolorun Aiyelari, who addressed journalists shortly after assessing the level of damage on Saturday, stated that the affected buildings included Tedder Hall, Bello Hall and some departments in the Faculty of Agriculture. An electric transformer at the SUB was also damaged by the rainstorm.
“We have recorded a lot of damage, unquantified for now; when we are through we will be able to know how much it will cost. We have three major roofs removed. One in Tedder hall, two buildings in the department.”
“The other one is the ISI (International School Ibadan) where the main building, the administrative building covering the Chemistry laboratory was removed. We have gone round, there are some other problems here and there, at Bello Hall we have slight damage, then the dome. It was a heavy rainfall yesterday.” “This will not affect our academic activities because our students are on holiday, except the postgraduate students writing their projects. You know we are resuming 16th of this month. We will have enough time to fix these and repair them,” Aiyelari said.
When asked to talk on what it will cost the institution to fix the affected structure, Aiyelari said he couldn’t determine the amount because they were still assessing the level of havoc wreaked by the rain.
He said: “I can’t say for now. As I said earlier, by evening we will be able to quantify how much it will be. But let me say that we have three roofs removed, we have to fix them. Let me also say that the transformer at our SUB was damaged and since then the whole campus has been experiencing power outage. We want to isolate that area so that other areas will not be affected.”