Universities in Lafia, Benue decry high electricity bills

The Federal University of Lafia (FUL), Nasarawa State, and the Federal University of Health Sciences (FUHS), Otukpo, Benue State, have decried the hike in electricity bills.

Prof. Shehu Abdulrahaman, the Vice Chancellor of FUL, and his FUHS counterpart, Prof. Innocent Ujah, sought the quick intervention of the National Assembly and relevant government authorities to cushion the effect of electricity bills.

The duo made their plight known during the oversight visit of the House of Representatives Committee on University Education, led by Rep. Abubakar Fulata, on Sunday.

They urged the lawmakers to intervene in the skyrocketing electricity bills of the electricity distribution company.

Abdulrahaman commended the lawmakers for their efforts, adding that the visit of the committee opened their eyes to several areas that would improve the running of the school.

In the same vein, Ujah commended the committee for the oversight visit and sought their support in order to further improve the quality of service at the university.

He said the school was working to enhance and sustain professionalism in line with the codes and ethics of various professional medical bodies as well as in line with international best practices.

On his part, Fulata tasked the Vice Chancellors with the need to judiciously utilise both human and material resources.

He said that without effective and efficient use of the scarce resources, the aim of setting up the two universities would not be achieved.

Fulata warned the two universities of the danger of spending money that was not appropriate.

“The universities are not revenue-generating agencies, so it will be an infraction on the part of the management of the university to spend any internally generated revenue without appropriation,” he said.

According to him, the power of appropriation is vested in the National Assembly.

Also, Rep. Victor Ogene, one of the members of the committee, said that the management of the university should take the welfare and security of students very seriously.

Ogene said it would be wrong for the VC of a university to claim ignorance of the total number of students staying in hostels and those staying off campus.