By George OPARA
Yaba College of Technology is under pressure over students’ accommodation crisis.
Spear News Nigeria gathered that many students are sleeping in unfinished buildings, classrooms and lecturers’ offices in some cases.
Many lecturers and students blame the prevailing situation on the institution’s management, alleging that management has yet, to prioritize students’ welfare by providing hostel accommodation.
Discrete findings disclosed that the college has only six hostels for a student population of 20,000, but only three of the hostels were allocated to students for this semester – Akata, PGD, and Complex Hostels.
It was further revealed that out of the three hostels, two were allocated to female students while one was approved as male hostel.
Worse still, insider sources said the management advertised hostel accommodation on the school portal for the current semester, and about 9,000 students applied at an alleged fee of ₦2,000 each student
Reliable sources told Spear News Nigeria that only three hostels were made available for allocation, and only 1,455 students were offered accommodation.
Lecturers who spoke under a condition of anonymity said the problem portrayed the school management’s nonchalant attitude toward students’ welfare.
Central to the accommodation problem is an unprofessional response to a STOP ORDER by the Bureau of Public Procurement placed on the renovation of one of the institution’s six hostels since 2023.
The New Hall Female Hostel, renamed Mrs Felicia Abimbola Odugbesan Hostel, has remained closed since 2023 due to non-compliance with due process requirements as stipulated by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).
The BPP said the award of the contract for the renovation of the hostel failed to adhere to due process.
But to justify the contract, it was alleged that the institution’s management submitted wrong documents and could not provide the relevant documents requested by the BPP.
But the management, it was gathered later admitted there was a mistake and, submitted new documents to show that the contract followed due process.
In one of the correspondences from the institution to the BPP dated April 19, 2024 and signed by the Rector, Ibraheem Abdul, the school said its initial response to the stop order was “hurriedly packaged” which was the reason for the errors.
“I wish to state not just as defence. But also, as a matter of truth that the initial response was hurriedly packaged in order to reach out to you within the stated deadline, to avoid committing an offence of wilful refusal to provide documents.
“The errors contained in those documents hurriedly packaged are highly regretted.”
Obviously, the BPP was neither impressed by the apology nor the fresh documents submitted to it, a situation that has made the hostel unavailable to students two years after.
This situation has reportedly forced many students to sleep inside the school chapel and an uncompleted building used by Muslim students for prayers while others find sleeping places in classrooms and offices.
“This place has no toilet, if we’re pressed, we have to look for toilets in classroom buildings and lecturers’ offices,” said one of the occupants of the uncompleted building– a first-year computer student.
Asked why he chose to reside in such a place, he said he couldn’t get hostel allocation.
“It’s the same thing for most of us here. Instead of coming from home which may be far away, they chose to reside here to save money because here is free.”
But when contacted, Mr. Adams Adekunle Suraju,
the Public Relations Officer of the institution, denied any accommodation crisis for students.
“We have hostels and we accommodate those we can accommodate; I’m not aware of students sleeping in any uncompleted building,” he responded.
Also, he denied that the BPP put a stop order on any of the school hostel.
“To the best of my knowledge, the BPP did not put any stop order on any hostel. I’m not aware of anything like that.
“We have one of our hostels destroyed by fire and we’re waiting for the Lagos State government to help with the renovation.”
Spear News Nigeria recalls that Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) was founded in 1947.
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