Yesterday, students from the Metallurgical Training Institute in Onitsha, Anambra State, staged a peaceful protest in response to the severe flooding affecting the campus. The demonstrators expressed their frustration that both academic and non-academic activities had come to a standstill. President of the Student Union Government, Chigozie Onyenyili, stated to reporters prior to the protest that students were enduring sleepless nights, as the floodwaters had overwhelmed the hostels, resulting in the destruction of their belongings. He noted that the situation was exacerbated by the contractors who, in the course of their work at the institution, damaged the drainage systems.
He remarked, “Flooding has been an ongoing concern at the institution, but it escalated due to recent government efforts to control flooding by removing the drainage within the school premises, without providing alternative measures to address the flood issue. They initiated this flood control project during the rainy season, but now they have abandoned the work, and as we speak, the institution is inundated. We are engaging in this peaceful demonstration to bring the government’s attention to our plight. The school has done what it can, but we urge the government to resume the work they left incomplete. The two machines the government provided for the task are non-functional, and it is imperative for them to deploy additional personnel to commence the work, thereby restoring normalcy to the institution.”
The Public Relations Officer of the institution, Owoh Ugochukwu, affirmed the incident, placing blame on government neglect.