…As Rector Seeks Intervention From Govt, Others
By Precious Oham
Rainstorm, on Tuesday evening, wrecked havock on the Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti, destroying multi-million naira buildings and electricity power lines in the institution.
The Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr. Temitope John Alake led newsmen on Thursday on an inspection tour to assess the effect of the havoc caused by the storm.
Some of the damaged buildings include; the roof of the old Engineering building, ceiling of the new Academic building, car park of the Students Affairs, roof of Abuja Hostel, shade in one of the bus terminal.
Others are; the roof of one of the sport building, roof of the School of Business Studies building, roof of the Independence hall female outdoor toilet, Polytechnic car pool and bus terminal.
According to the Rector, skeletal work had already begun to salvage some critical points adding that they have written to the Minister of Education for urgent intervention.
His words: “The storm came as a natural phenomenon that caused a lot of damage to the institution’s infrastructure. With the economic cost of things now, it’s a damage that cannot be run by the school alone.
“We thank God that we have no record of lost of lives and we thank God that it is not in the season of semester examination because we are billed to start our first semester in this session in less than two weeks.
“Some of our lecture theatres are badly damaged, the academic building and even where we park our vehicles is seriously damaged. Some of the vehicles were affected by the storm.
“It is my plea to well-meaning Nigerians to see how they can assist the institution. We are trying to make adequate report to be forwarded to the Minister of Education through our visitor to come to our rescue. It will be appreciated if they can assist us. Already, we have started some skeletal work, just to salvage critical points.”
Also, a statement by the institution reads: “the heavy downpour, which lasted for about three hours, wrecked havoc on some buildings, structures, some of which roof were torn and blown off, including streetlights among other facilities which were also destroyed. Mostly affected were classrooms, staff quarters, hostels, bus stop structures and electricity poles were also uprooted.
“The uprooted electric poles led to the destruction of electricity power lines, cables thereby leading to black out on campus, which led to loss of manpower hour as most workers were unable to work for hours on Wednesday, 3rd April as a result of the black out and other effects of the storm.
“It took the efforts of Staff of the Maintenance and Services Directorate and some other Staff to clear some of the debris, tree branches and shrubs that littered motor and walk ways before vehicular movement could be restored on one way of the dual carriage ways on campus and on some other roads within the campus before near seamless vehicular movement could be achieved.
“The Rector, Dr. Temitope John Alake who went round with other Principal Officers on an inspection tour to assess the effect of the havoc caused by the storm urged members of the Polytechnic community not to be perturbed by the damages though they were too heavy for the Institution to bear.
“As part of Management’s immediate action to curtail the damage arising from the storm, some of the electricity poles were being fixed to enable seamless operation of activities in the Institution.”