When the video of the hideous killing of four students of the
University of Port Harcourt penultimate Friday went viral, Nigerians and
indeed the decent communities of the world were stunned. In the wake of
the killings, so much of positive and negative actions have been
recorded- from students, University authorities, government, police and
bereaved families members to the desertion by residents of the community
in the thick of the gruesome killing. ANAYO ONUKWUGHA reviews the
situation.
It started like a rumour on Friday, October 5, 2012, but gradually,
it became a reality that four students of the University of Port
Harcourt had been killed at Omuokere-Aluu Community, Rivers State.
The students are; Biringa Chiadika Lordson, Year-Two Theatre Arts;
Ugonna Kelechi Obuzor, Year-Two Geology and Mike Lloyd Toku, Year-Two
Civil Engineering, while the status of the fourth victim, Tekena Erikena
is yet to be confirmed.
Lloyd and Ugonna, apart from being cousins, also found a relationship
in rap, a music genre, which was made popular in the United States. As
upcoming artistes, they both won a rapping contest organised by
Silverbird Television in Port Harcourt, a few years back.
Although, Aluu is in Ikwerre local government area of the state, it
is less than 30 metres from the main campus of the University, which is
at Choba in Obio/Akpor local government area of the state.
Aluu can be described as an off-campus suburb, where more than 50 per
cent of students of the University of Port Harcourt live side by side
with indigenes of the community, who are predominantly of the Ikwerre
ethnic stock.
Different accounts have been giving by different people, including
those who were at the scene of the incident, in relation to the actual
reason why members of the Omuokere-Aluu vigilante killed the four youths
after parading them round the community naked. While one of the
accounts had it that they were armed robbers who went to rob residents
of the community of their laptops and phones before they were caught at
about 4.30 am, another account said they were cultists that had been
terrorising the community.
Another account, which sounded more authentic, was the one that said
that the four boys had gone to demand for a debt owed one of them,
Ugonna, by a resident of the community and in the process, a fight
ensued between them and the man they went to meet. According to the
account, the boys decided to go away with a laptop and phones belonging
to their debtor in place of the money. It was at this point that the man
raised alarm, shouting thieves, which prompted the vigilante to swoop
on them.
According to eyewitnesses, the vigilante team, made up of mostly
youths of the community took thearrested students to the palace of the
traditional ruler of the community, Alhaji Hassan Welewa where the four
boys, upon interrogation, allegedly gave three different stories that
did not match.
The eyewitnesses said that it was at this point that Welewa, who is
also a Muslim leader in the state, allegedly gave a nod to the action of
members of the vigilante team, prompting the parading of the four boys
round the community and their subsequent beating to death. However, the
vigilante team could not succeed in setting their corpses ablaze as they
planned before the arrival of policemen from the Aluu Divisional Police
Headquarters, who removed the corpses and deposited them at the morgue
of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), Alakahia in
Obio/Akpor local government area of the state.
Following public outcry over the incident, Rivers State Governor,
Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi ordered a full-scale investigation into the
murder of the four promising youths. The governor, who spoke through the
Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Seminitari
gave an assurance that all those behind the killing of the students
would be fished out and made to face the wrath of the law.
By Saturday, October 6, 2012, security agents comprising men of the
Rivers State Police Command, the State Security Service (SSS) and the
Joint Task Force (JTF) swooped on the community and by Sunday, October
7, 2012, no fewer than 13 persons, including the traditional ruler of
the community were already in custody of the police.
Confirming the arrests in a statement, Police Public Relations
Officer (PPRO) in the state, Mr. Benjamin Ugwuegbulem, a Deputy
Superintendent of Police (DSP) said; “Rivers State Police Command
unequivocally condemns the gruesome killing of four Uniport students on
October 5, by irate mob from Aluu community.
“The command sympathises with the families of the slain students and
also appeals to them not to take the laws into their hands. Students of
the university are urged not to engage in any reprisal attack as such
could lead to chaos and anarchy.
“The command has commenced investigation into the incident. Amazing
success has been recorded in that regard as 13 persons, including the
chief of the community suspected to have been involved in the
reprehensible, barbaric act, have been arrested based on credible
intelligence and video clips of the killings. Suspects are being
interrogated by crack police team.”
Only last Tuesday, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed
Abdulkadir Indabawa announced that 11 out of the 13 suspects that were
arrested in connection with the killing of the students have been
charged while the remaining two were kept in police custody to aid
security agents in their investigations.
Also, last Wednesday, security teams comprising of men of the State
Police Command, the State Security Service (SSS) and 2 Amphibious
Brigade, Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, arrested five more persons near
the scene of the crime in Omuokere-Aluu, thereby bringing the number of
those arrested so far in connection with the murder to 18.
To Indabawa, the way the four youths were killed was barbaric as
there was no justification for the mob action. He promised that the
police would ensure such ugly incident does not repeat itself again in
the state.
The authorities of the University declared a seven-day mourning
period and suspended the planned students’ union week in honour of the
murdered four and later shut down the school indefinitely following
protests by students which became violent.
Apart from blocking the ever-busy East-West Road for several hours,
the students, despite appeals from the Vice Chancellor of the
University, Professor Joseph Ajienka and the Executive Secretary of
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Professor Ben Angwe, over-ran
Omuokere-Aluu community, burning down no fewer than 12 houses.
Already, the entire Aluu community has turned into a ghost town as
residents have fled the area to avoid either being arrested by the
security agents that have flooded the community or the rampaging
students of the University.
A visit to the community showed that truck load of mobile policemen
was spotted at one location near the scene of the killings, while over
50 other heavily armed and fierce looking operatives of the Joint Task
Force, (JTF), Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), State Security Service
(SSS) and other conventional policemen were seen moving round the town.
Confirming the closure of the University, the Deputy Registrar,
Public Relations of UNIPORT, Dr. Williams Wodi said that students have
been directed to vacate the hostels within the university immediately as
the institution remained closed indefinitely.
Wodi said the decision of the university became necessary to prevent
any breakdown of law and order that may result, following the killing of
the four students by Aluu villagers.
He said; “The University Authority has ordered the immediate closure
of the institution and directed students to vacate the hostels within
the university. The decision is to prevent a breakdown of law and order
on campus as a result of the killing of four students.”
To Angwe, the NHRC had received calls from the international
community on the extra-judicial murder of the four students and would
also monitor the trial of all the suspects involved in the sad incident
to its end. He assured family members of the four and students of the
University that the Commission would stand by them to see that justice
was done in the case.
Apparently disturbed by the murder of the students, the Rivers State
House of Assembly last Wednesday made a resolution condemning the action
of the people of Omuokere-Aluu community.
The resolution followed a motion brought on the floor of the House by
the member representing Omuma Constituency, Hon. Kelechi Godspower
Nwogu, who regretted that students of the University went on reprisal
and razed houses in the community despite warning against such act by
the state governor, who also ordered a full scale investigation into the
murder.
Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Otelemaba Daniel Amachree, who also
condemned the murder of the students, urged the state government and
security agencies to beef up security in the community.
Despite the claim by the Rivers State Police Command that it got
alert on the incident very late, hence, its inability to respond before
the students were killed, not few Nigerians were of the belief that the
police never wanted to interfere in what it saw as ‘a community affair.’
To Mrs. Chinwe Biringa, mother of Chiadika, one of the murdered four
undergraduate students, policemen were present during the killings. She
expressed disappointment with the way and manner the policemen looked on
and did nothing to stop the gruesome murder of the four boys.
Biringa said, “Eyewitnesses accounts revealed that policemen were at
the scene of the incident. Besides, policemen at the police station
confirmed to one of the bereaved parents who visited them that policemen
were there.And the explanation they gave was that they were overwhelmed
by the crowd and that they had insufficient bullets in their guns and
all that thrash to confront the crowd.
“But those people were only with sticks not with guns. If they really
wanted to work they would have worked. If they had done what the Joint
Task Force did by firing warning shots into the air when they wanted to
collect the corpses, things wouldn’t have gone awry”.
While insisting that the four murdered boys were not robbers, she
said; “We don’t have security in this country. We don’t just have and
our children and wards are all over the country. We are only living by
God’s grace every day, because this can happen to anybody any day.
“God knows best because nothing stops Him from doing something
extraordinary to save them. But may God judge all those who had a hand
in the killings”.
Writing on his page on face-book, a Port Harcourt-based media
practitioner, Chris Finebone said; “There are indications that the
police unit at Choba came to the scene with two patrol vans as the boys
were being man-handled and were warned to stay off by the villagers and
the police left.
“Please, Mr. Governor, how can we trust the police when their men got
to the mob in action and simply walked away without rescuing the poor
lads? How can we trust the police? How?”
Perhaps, it was Finebone’s question to the governor that prompted the
Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Rivers State to call on President
Goodluck Jonathan, the Police Service Commission (PSC), the
Inspector-General of Police and the National Assembly to immediately
sack the state Commissioner of Police for negligence over the killing of
the four students.
The party also frowned at the contradictory statements emanating from
the Police Commissioner, Police Public Relations Officer and the
Divisional Police Officer in charge of Rumorji Division, saying it
smacks of irresponsibility and unbecoming of men and officers trained
to protect lives and properties.
In a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary in the state, Jerry
Needam, the ACN described the attitude of the police to distress calls
put across to them as not only poor, but a dereliction of duty following
the failure to mobilise men and officers of the force to the scene of
the murder upon receiving the distress calls.
The statement said; “While killers of these undergraduates of the
University of Port Harcourt are being fished out for prosecution, the
Police Commissioner, his PPRO and the DPO in Charge of Rumorji whose
primary responsibility is to protect lives and property but failed to do
so in this circumstance should also be queried and possibly prosecuted.
“The double speak of the PPRO is also regrettable, for misinforming
the public. On one account he claimed the victims were dead before the
police arrived. On another, he said his men were overpowered by the
uncountable number of people at the scene that made it impossible for
the police to act.
“Police officers must be held accountable to all their actions and
inactions in this circumstance to guarantee adequate security in Rivers
State.”
Apart from the ACN, several individuals and organisations, including
the Rivers State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the
state Councils of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Trade
Union Congress (TUC) have unequivocally condemned the murder of the
students.
To the PDP, the killing of the four undergraduates was “despicable,
most barbaric, chilling, and in explainable. The party expressed shock
at the misfortune that cut short the precious lives of the four lads.
In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. George Ukwuoma-Nwogba,
the PDP lamented the wild display of hatred shown by those who killed
the young men and in the bizarre manner they did, saying; “That act is
an anti-thesis to the efforts at value re-orientation being championed
by the administration in the state.”
As it is now, the eyes of all Nigerians and the international
community is on the security agencies in Rivers State, especially, the
police, as well as the judiciary to ensure that while investigation into
the extra-judicial murder of the undergraduates is conducted with the
urgency it requires, there should also be speedy trials of the suspects
arrested in connection with the ugly incident.
