On the morning of February 14, 2026, students at the University of Benin’s Ekheuan Campus took to the streets in protest, blocking the school gates over ongoing power outages and a severe lack of water that has persisted for three days.
The protest caused significant disruption, stranding not only the students but also university staff, business owners, and visitors with scheduled events at the campus.
Prosper, a student involved in the protest, expressed frustration over the administration’s failure to address basic infrastructure needs despite the collection of tuition and other mandatory fees. “For the past three days, there’s been no light, no water, and yet we’ve paid for these services. The hostel conditions are unbearable because there’s no water to even take a bath,” he lamented.
Further compounding the problem, a security scare occurred the previous evening when an unknown assailant, armed with
a cutlass, attempted to enter the girls’ hostel. Though the intruder fled after injuring a student, the incident intensified fears among the students, adding to the growing discontent.Despite assurances from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Adesina Ayinde, who promised that water would be restored later that day and that the power issue was being addressed, the students remained firm. “We will not open the gates until we have running water,” they insisted.
Reports indicated that the campus’s only functioning generator had broken down, and the backup generator previously bought during the tenure of former Vice-Chancellor Professor Friday Orunmwense had been moved to the main campus in Ugbowo by the last administration.
As of the latest update, senior university staff, including the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, were still negotiating with students to end the blockade and allow movement in and out of the campus.
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