UNIOSUN Provides Accommodation For Students, Bans Cooking In Hostels

By Yusuf Oketola

THE management of Osun State University (UNIOSUN), Osogbo has prohibited cooking in the school hostels, warning the students who are provided accommodation by the school against violating the order.

The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Labode Popoola, while addressing pressmen on Monday, said the prohibition was for the safety of the students.

Popoola revealed that cooking was banned in the hostels due to some dangers that might emanate from gas cylinders or any cooking materials.

Recounting some of the fire incidents that had happened in other universities, Popoola said, “104 people, each with a gas cylinder in one complex is minacious. It also affects negatively the maintenance of the structure.”

He added: “In the house of residence, it is never done in universities. The fact that people are doing it somewhere should not make it right. We have had negative different experiences from the past; from UI, OAU, BUK etcetera. Fire explosions arose from student cooking in halls of residence.

“That is why we conclude not allowing students to cook in the school hostels. We encourage eateries to relocate to school facilities and prepare meals for students, we assure the quality of the meals and regulate the price to N200 to N250 per meal.

“Osun State University did not start as a residential institution and I know the challenges we have faced over the years, due to ritual killings, cultism, students being manhandled, that’s why we decided to go residential.

“We started building hostels with our little savings. Now, each of our six campuses has 104 capacity hostels which we make compulsory for fresh students to provide security, to expose the students to the true university cultures. We took over some private hostels because we couldn’t meet the capacity.”