The management of the University of Ibadan on Monday counted their losses following a heavy downpour which wreaked havoc on the varsity’s owned bookshop company.

The rainfall which started on Sunday evening and lasted till the early hours of Monday opened the floodgates on the materials meant for sale.

Several books, stationery, computers among others were destroyed when the roof of the building caved in.

The workers at the bookshop reported to work on Monday only to find almost every section of the building flooded, with many valuable books and stationery in water.

Inspecting the level of the damage, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, along with the University’s Bursar lamented the losses, describing the cost as colossal.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Bookshop, Mr. Olatunji Agboola, could not estimate the cost of the losses as at the time of writing this report.

A private business outfit within the Bookshop, Idea Konsult was also said to have recorded losses in no small measures.

Almost on a regular basis, UI has been losing property worth several millions of naira to rain and storm on campus.

The colossal destruction of property, including a block of classrooms, laboratories, libraries, staff quarters and personal property of staff and students which has always been putting the University in a quandary seems to defy solutions each time it rains and thunders.

In August 2011, rain wrecked a major disaster as the five-hour downpour flooded the campus with attendant destruction of several properties which later compelled the university to launch an appeal fund in order to ameliorate the pains of the institution.

In the 2011 disaster, special species of fish such as claias gariepinus, heterobranchus bidorsalis, oreochromis niloticus and parachana obscura were swept away from the Aquaculture Department.

Again, on the 7th April 2018, some students and three members of staff of the university escaped death on a Friday night when a rainstorm destroyed official quarters, cars, hostel and offices in the school.

One of the staff members was lucky to have escaped death when a tree fell on her car while the other two occupants were not at home when a strong wave caused a tree to fall on their official quarters in the school.

In the same vein, UI lost several properties in the wake of March 9, 2019 rain which blew away roofs of many buildings including student hostels, Trenchard hall, Theatre Arts Department, among others.