Maintenance hostel, the popular student village located at the OAU campus gate is facing significant security challenges, posing a threat to the safety of its residents. Despite housing over 1500 female students across 19 hostels, the community lacks a proper security system at both the main entrance and the secondary exit.
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The maintenance hostel is known for its high accommodation prices as residents pay accommodation fees ranging from ₦75,000 to ₦300,000 per space. However, despite the high fees paid by the residents, the main gate is described as shaky and ruined, unable to be locked, leaving the community vulnerable to unauthorized access.
Although female students pay exorbitant prices for their bed space and accommodation, the hostel owners have not been able to come together to provide the student community with a good security system at the main gate.
Speaking with ACJOAU correspondent, Joy a resident of the maintenance hostel said, ‘The gate is just there for a show and cannot be properly locked. It is not protecting us from anything because anyone can badge in at night without anything stopping them’. She further stated that ‘They need to look into it and fix it’. Boluwatife, another resident, echoed this sentiment and said, ‘There is no gate, it is just there as a figure and it is not guarding anything’.
Ayomide said, ‘The gate does not even get locked. The security men just stack up the iron together and anyone can easily scatter the iron and badge in at night’. Sharon explained that a particular occurrence proved to her that there is no proper security in maintenance. She said, ‘My friend who is also a resident had a health crisis one night and we called a male friend to come and help. Later after we got help, our male friend told us he ran into maintenance without anything stopping and he was already halfway into the compound before the security men came out”. She further stated, “This is an indication that the gate is not serving any of its purpose’.
Furthermore, the secondary exit connecting maintenance to campus has one security guard and no gate. Even though the entry for male visitors is from 12 pm to 8 pm daily, some visitors with cars usually have access to the hostel community before the official entry time because there is no problem stopping at the main entrance of the community.
In all, the hostel lacks good security at the main entrance and exit and a proper security system should be put in place to prevent any form of attack. Also, residents’ safety needs to be paramount to those in charge.