Rainfall wrecks havoc in Ibadan, damages buildings, lab in UI

No fewer than seven buildings including the Students’ Union (SU) building, two halls of residence, Chemistry Laboratory at International School, Ibadan and some buildings within the premises of University of Ibadan (UI) were badly damaged as a result of a heavy rainfall that wrecked havoc in some parts of Ibadan, the Oyo state capital Friday night.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration) of the institution, Prof. Emilolorun Aiyelari who addressed journalists Saturday shortly after assessing the level of damage at the institution, said other affected buildings include: halls of residence such as Tedder and Bello halls and some departments in the Faculty of Agriculture.

Also affected is an electricity transformer at the SU building which was also damaged during the rain.

Aiyelari however said the institution was yet to ascertain what it will cost it to fix the damaged property as at the time of the assessment Saturday morning.

He stressed that the damages will not affect the academic activities in the institution.

Aiyelari said “We have recorded a lot of damages, unquantified for now, when we are through, we will be able to know how much it will cost. We have three major roofs removed. One in Tedder hall, two buildings in the departments.

“The other one is the International School (ISI) where the main building, the administrative building covering the Chemistry laboratory were removed. We have gone round, there are some other problems here and there, at Bello hall where we have slight damages, then the dome. It was heavy rainfall yesterday.

“This will not affect our academic activities because our students are on holiday except the post graduate students writing their projects. You know we are resuming 16th of this month. We will have enough time to fix these and repair them.

When asked to speak on what it would cost the institution to fix the damages, Aiyelari said he cannot determine the amount because they were still assessing the damages.

His words, “I can’t say for now, like I said earlier, by evening we will be able to quantify how much it will cost. But let me say that we have three roofs removed, we have to fix them. Let me also say that transformer at our SU building was damaged and since then the whole campus has been experiencing power outage since yesterday night. We want to isolate that area so that other areas will not be affected.”