According to reports, hundreds of Covenant University students in Ota, Ogun State, were admitted to the hospital after possibly contracting food poisoning from the school’s butteries.
The number of affected students has caused the school’s medical center to become overcrowded.
But the university is keeping mum over the matter as calls and messages to relevant officials were ignored and not replied to for many hours. In the meantime, a parent who lives abroad verified the situation over the phone on Saturday.
The student has regained some balance and is currently recovering in the school, according to the source, who asked not to be named for fear of the child being victimised.
The source said: “We have had difficulties reaching our child since we received the news. But earlier today (Saturday), we got through to our child who confirmed being affected by the food poisoning but is now recovering well and is fairly stable.”
While acknowledging the development, several sources expressed regret about the school’s choice to keep the situation under wraps.
An anonymous former university employee claimed that the school ought to have addressed the issue “to douse the tension but all this hide and seek game doesn’t help the university.”
Attempts to get reactions from the institution on the possible cause of the food poisoning, and how the situation is being managed were unsuccessful, as calls were evaded while messages were not replied to by officials.
The university’s Head of Media and Public Affairs, Chichi Ononiwu, who did not pick up her telephone for hours, quickly cut off the call as soon as a reporter mentioned the incident to her when she eventually picked up the call on Sunday night.
Ms Ononiwu, who requested the identity of the reporter when she eventually picked up the call, cut off the line as soon as the matter was raised, and has refused to pick up subsequent calls.
Other journalists also confirmed Ms Ononiwu’s similar behaviour when they called her for comments on the matter.
It is not the first time the university would be recording incident of food poisoning on the campus.
A similar development was reported in 2010 when many students were said to have been hospitalised.