Akpodeh, who just graduated from the Department of Science Laboratory of the university, said she saw death, thanking God for sparing her life in the disaster.
She stated that trouble started when the room she shared with another student, Akpordoghor Oghenefega, in the bungalow behind the main building, became flooded while it was raining that Saturday morning.
She said, “During the rain, our room became flooded to our surprise and the first thing we did was to try and put our belongings on higher platform. But while doing that, the main building collapsed and it affected the bungalow.
“That brought more water into our room and the glass door got broken and injured my room mate who is also receiving treatment at another department at UBTH (University of Benin Teaching Hospital)”.
“We saw a little opening and that was where we passed through to safety. The flood may have caused the building to collapse. It was so much. We were even trying to bail the water when the main building collapsed.
“The fourth person, Leonard got injured when he jumped from the third floor as the building was about to collapse.
“He is also at UBTH receiving treatment. He sustained the most injury out of the four of us involved in the incident.
A fresh graduate of UNIBEN who also lived in the next building said the incident happened between 7.30 and 8.00am while it was raining, saying the flooding led to the collapse.
He said, “The rain started around 4.00am and it became intense at about 7.00am.
“The whole street was flooded as indeed some of the houses especially the ones whose foundation were not high.
“My house was also flooded and we locked our gate but the flood damaged the lock and the water came into our rooms.
“While we were trying to salvage our belongings, I had a loud noise only to find out that the building had collapsed, damaging our fence and a room.
Both UNIBEN authority and the Edo State Government have said that all the victims were rescued alive and in stable conditions.
