The University of Ilorin has inaugurated a new 128-bed male hostel for students of its College of Health Sciences.
The facility is part of the efforts of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, towards providing decent accommodation for students on campus.
Each of the 64 rooms in the storey building has a kitchenette, toilet and bathroom.The facility is also equipped with common rooms as well as a reception hall.
It is expected to accommodate about 128 students of the Faculties of Clinical Sciences and Basic Medical Sciences.
Provost of the College, Prof. W.B.R. Johnson, and the Secretary, Dr S.B Adisa, thanked the university administration for its efforts to ease the accommodation challenges of students.
"I think you need to go there and see that it is quite a vast upgrade of what we have at this end. It is a storey building. Aesthetically, it looks better, each room is self-contained. Self-contained because each room has its own mini-cooking stuff, of course, the bathing and toilet facilities are room specific. So, the new hostel is another addition to the feather-saturated cap of our Vice-Chancellor,” said Johnson, who also praised the VC for constructing a link road connecting the main campus with the UNILORIN Teaching Hospital (UITH).
Before the 6.5Km link road was constructed, Johnson said it took about one and a half hours to move from the hospital to the main campus - a journey that has now been reduced to 10 minutes.
"That is the greatest favour that you can do to some of us who have found ourselves in this kind of position that we have to liaise constantly between the college and the university," he said in appreciation.
Disclosing plans to also build places of worship for Christians and Muslims close to the halls of residence, Dr Adisa lamented the hardship students face commuting between the UITH, the hostel and the main campus, urging the university to assist in getting vehicles or tricycles to ply the area and ease the challenge of transportation.
He also appealed to the university management to ensure adequate security for occupants of the new hostel, calling for the deployment of mobile-policemen with firearms, as well as streetlights which, he stressed, "will go a long way in guaranteeing safety."
