By Habibullah Temako
The excitement of securing admission to Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, was a dream come true for 100-Level Biochemistry student, Lawal Muhammad Sagir, But this excitement has been swiftly tempered by campus reality upon arrival, where he found himself sharing space with unauthorized occupants at his residents in Jubril Aminu hostel.
Sagir’s encounter with unauthorized occupants at Jibril Aminu hostel put him in a situation that contrasted with the comfort he had envisioned. He said that he applied to a school hostel expecting to share with only 8 fellow students, but was instead greeted by an overcrowded space with 11 students already occupying it.
“I had been allocated a room in Jibril Aminu hostel where I already met 10 students occupying all the bed spaces. But then, all my thought was that maybe I was given the wrong block, not until I found that another block also filled up with almost the same number of students in a room,” Sagir revealed.
Being someone who valued a little bit of privacy, he said that he was not comfortable with the squatting, given the reason that there’s hardly a day without getting disturbed or fighting against each other—either for who to sleep in the bed or sometimes for making unnecessary noise.
“I sometimes prefer going somewhere else to sleep than coming back to sleep at the hostel allocated to me. If not for the fact that I had already paid and I don’t want my money to go wasted, I would’ve left that hostel for a private room. Because I am the kind of person who doesn’t like having issues with others and this is commonly impossible at the school hostel,” he regretted.
Sagir further recounted that in his room, only five of them are rightful occupants while the rest are squatting, yet they claim equal rights with them. According to him, he said those illegal occupants even claim more space than them and sometimes they are being threatened if they have any issue or misunderstanding among themselves.
“I got to know that only five of us have paid while the rest are just illegal occupants. I overheard one of them, a 400-Level student, telling his friend that he has been in that block for three years and he has never paid for once. He even stated that only jambito pay for school hostels since they have no idea about the system,” he disclosed
Squatting and Stealing: Thriving Norms at Jubril Aminu Hostel
Idris Abdulrazaq, a 100-Level Islamic Studies student, shared his experiences with similar challenges. Despite being 10 in number in a hostel, he said that the only thing he was not okay with is the issue of frequent stealing of foodstuffs and valuable materials in Jibril Aminu hostel.
“Even though we are nine in my hostel, I was not sharing a bed space with anybody, which I must say I am a bit okay with. My only problem living in the school hostel is stealing because I can’t count how many times my foodstuffs were stolen, including my gadgets,” Abdulrazaq lamented.
Fed up with this situation, Abdulrazaq stated that he couldn’t just do something about it due to the fact that he did not know where to report the issue, which increased his frustration to sometimes resort violence in protecting his properties in the hostel.
“Only this semester alone, I renewed my foodstuffs more than three times. Once I leave the hostel for lectures, I will come back to see my rice half stolen. This was done to me more than three times and the thing really vexed me. Also, I left my power bank and small phone in my bag which was stolen last week when I went out,” he said.
He further stated that these bizarre security challenges against his properties deepened his fears not to reapply to the school hostel in his second year. According to his narration, the frequent stealing of his foodstuffs and properties caused a significant financial harm to him, stating that it made him flat broke for shortage of funds.
A Case Too Many
Shehu Uthman, a 300-Level law student, recounted his harrowing experience with unauthorized occupants at Jibril Aminu hostel, recalling his time as a 200-Level student when he discovered he was the legitimate resident among the eight occupants in his block, while he could not tell how others gained their access to the hostel.
“Sure, these students have not paid for the hostel, yet they’ll not allow us to enjoy our stay in the hostel in peace. Meanwhile, since they know that I am the only one who paid, they always tell me that I cannot exercise more right over them because we are all students and some will even say they senior me with years in the school, therefore I owed them respect instead,” he said.
Shehu further recalled instances where he had frequent scuffles with these unauthorized occupants with respect to his properties. He said that on many occasions, they tampered with his properties when he is not in the hostel, including eating his cooked food, pot of soup and interfering with his snacks.
“Although I still prefer to stay in the school hostel, the way these illegal occupants interfere with my properties is an issue that should be addressed. They are over-enjoying everything FREE in the hostel—free stays and free foods altogether,” he lamented.
Adeojo Yusuf Babatunde, also shared his own encounter with illegal occupants at Jibril Aminu hostel when he was allocated a block during his 100-Level. According to him, there were ten students in a hostel and only two or three of them paid while the rest were unauthorised occupants.
“Flashback to my stay at Jibril Aminu hostel, a room for 8 occupants was occupied by 10 occupants leading to congestion and unavailability of space to move around in the hostel. Many students squat with their friends in the hostel thereby inconveniencing others in the room.
“I came to know about this fact when I went to clear my bed space with the hostel supervisor. That was when I learnt that out of 10 occupants only 4 members cleared our bed space,” he shared his frustration.
Adeojo expressed his frustration with the security situation, revealing that he had fallen victim to theft at the hands of unauthorized occupants, where lost valuable items including two Android phones and a power bank.
He said that incessant stealing and disruptions caused by these students became too much to bear, which pushed him to make the difficult decision to relocate from the school hostel to a private hostel in search of a more secure and peaceful living environment.
“Report cases to the student affairs” — SU CTC
Speaking with the News Digest Press, the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee, Naziru Yusuf Shehu, 500-Level law student, said that he was not aware of the situation and such cases have not been brought to his attention until now. But he assured that students who are facing this situation should not hesitate to reach out to them in order to properly fish out those occupants or better still lodge complaints to the Dean of Students Affairs.
“Although I am just hearing this issue for the first time, I just will implore that students who discover that they are squatting with unauthorized occupants in their respective hostels report it to us so that we can trace them and take appropriate measures on them. And if they can’t reach us, they should at least issue complaints to the Dean of the Students Affairs,” he stated.
He also assured that they will make efforts to ransack each hostel to fish out those illegal occupants in order to ensure that students who have paid have enjoyed their space and feel safe for what they paid for.
“We are assuring you that we will take action by going to the hostel to check this inconvenience to actually confirm it and locate those unauthorized occupants. This will take effect subject to the directives of the Dean of Students Affairs whose consent would give us go-ahead for appropriate measures against them,” he further stressed.
Meanwhile, in an exclusive interview on Saturday, April 12th, 2025, with this reporter, Dean of Students Affairs, Professor Umar Aliyu, expressed disappointment over the unauthorized occupation issue and made a stern warning that indicated the institution’s intent to address the problem.
According to him, “Authorized occupants should identify and report unauthorized occupants to my office, specifying the blocks where these incidents occur. I urge them not to engage in violence or any sort of fight with them, but rather let us handle the situation. We’ll take necessary steps to apprehend those involved if they do so, reporting it to us.”
The Dean sternly warned that if legal occupants asked unauthorized occupants to vacate their hostel in benefit of their convenience, failure or refusal to do so will attract drastic measures against them. Therefore, he added that prompt intervention will be made as they are expecting legal occupants to report their situation with them for proper handling.