Accommodation Racketeering Rocks Unical
There have been mixed reactions over reselling of hostel accommodation spaces in the University of Calabar (UNICAL) by students.
Checks revealed that Malabites and Malabresses who reside on campus are raising eye brows over the brisk business made by original owners of hostel spaces.
Some of the students, who spoke to our reporter, maintained that the available spaces in the hostel are not enough for both the returning and new students, a situation that has made those who were lucky enough to get the space to be selling it at very high prices.
The students disclosed that the official price of the hostel space from the school management is N21,500 but due to the high demand for accommodation, the price has risen to high heavens as original space owners sell between N75,000 to N80,000.
It was also gathered that some students now sleep in lecture halls as a result of lack of accommodation, leaving them in frustration and exposing them to risk.The hall chairman of Hall 9 (name withheld), when contacted, expressed displeasure on the incident and urged the management of the institution to intervene.
She called on the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Florence Obi, to further appeal to the federal government, through the TETFund for the construction of more hostels to ease the accommodation problem in the institution.
The hall 9 leader however pleaded with students to bear with the management as efforts are in place to bring the situation under control.
