Says 1wk sit-at-home order stalled repair efforts
Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
The Management of Gregory University Uturu, GUU, has dismissed as baseless, speculations in some quarters that the recent power outage at the female hostel of the institution was due to neglect.
According to the institution, the sad development was occasioned by the difficulty in accessing experts, who could not travel to the university then due to travel restrictions by enforcers of sit-at-home order, to repair the 500KVA.
In a press statement issued by the Public Relations Officer of the university, Ebubechi Iwuh, the Management explained that the institution had since inception in 2012 “relied on generators and solar systems to seamlessly supply power to over 3000 members of the university community.”
The statement made available to Ikengaonline read in part: “It is an established fact that the Gregory University Uturu management has for the past 10 years of the institution’s corporate existence been constrained by the absence of power from the national grid to resort to supplying light to the campus with different capacity ranges of generator sets and solar systems. This burden management has continued to bear even in the face of sky rocketing prices of petroleum products.”
According to the statement, “trouble began when a 500 KVA generator deployed to supply power to the entire campus broke down and efforts to repair the equipment was stalled by inability to secure parts and skilled workmanship due to threats of lockdown in the entire South East which made movement between Uturu and other towns very difficult.”
The Management which apologised for the sad development, said that concerted efforts had been made to restore light to parts of the campus through alternative means “but unfortunately the deployed equipment began supplying more voltage of power than required and had to be shut down to avoid causing further damage to students appliances.”
While reasserting the commitment of the university management to the well-being and academic advancement of the students, the statement appealed for understanding especially as “the unfortunate development is currently being holistically addressed to ensure realisation of a permanent solution, even as management, while prioritizing the welfare of students, again reassures that very soon normalcy will be restored.”
