COVID-19: UNILAG sends students home after recording cases of the virus

The Senate resolves that all students should vacate the halls of residence immediately.

The Senate of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, has mandated the institution’s management to ask all students to vacate hostels “with immediate effect.”

A member of the Senate, who was part of the meeting but does not want to be quoted, claiming not to be authorised to do so, he added that the decision was unavoidable following the rising cases of coronavirus infection on the campus.

“The Senate at its meeting held today considered the situation of third wave of COVID-19 in Lagos State and its implications for the university. The Senate resolved that all students should vacate the halls of residence immediately,” the source said.

The source also added that the Senate also approved commencement of virtual lectures from July 26.

The principal assistant registrar in charge of information, Nonye Oguama, did not pick our reporter’s calls as her telephone line was engaged.

The Senate, which comprises professors, heads of the departments and other lecturers, is the supreme organ of a university on academic matters including approval of results and award of certificates.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the university’s chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dele Ashiru, also confirmed the development to our reporter on the phone.

Mr Ashiru, who is also a member of the Senate, said the decision was imperative in the face of what he described as an imminent third wave of the pandemic in Lagos, and the campus in particular.

The ASUU chair said the new development is a vindication of his union’s earlier position on the inadequate protective facilities against the pandemic on Nigerian campuses.