Students Protest Killing Of Colleague In Nsukka

Thousands of secondary school students on Monday overwhelmed the police Area Command, Nsukka, following the killing of one of their colleagues, Master Ebuka Omeje, by men of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) at Ovoko in Igbo-Eze North council.

Omeje was allegedly shot dead by the police over allegations that he was involved in kidnapping.

As the angry students of Boys’ Secondary School, Ovoko besieged the police Area Command at Nsukka, four traditional rulers from the area took their own protest to the Police Headquarters, Enugu where they sought the audience of the Commissioner of Police.

The Tide gathered that the late Omeje and his friend, also a student of same school, were returning from a Block Rosary Crusade meeting held in the neighbouring Ovoko Agu Community when the incident occurred.

The two students were said to have been dropped off by an older religious devotee on their way from the outing when they saw a man drop a parcel on a spot and sped away.

The curious boys were said to have gone closer to see what the man dropped when a gun shot rang out from nowhere. The shooting was reportedly done by the SARS men who had laid ambush following an alleged complaint that certain persons who had been threatening a man’s life were to take a ransom on the spot.

Apparently, aggrieved by news of his killing, the angry students who carried placards chanting war songs and made processions along the major roads within the Nsuka GRA where the police area office is located.

Also present were the principals of the senior and junior sessions of the school, Mr JoePeters Ani and Mr Cyril Osai. Addressing the students, Ani and Osai urged them to remain peaceful and law abiding in their protest.

Effort by The Tide to ascertain outcome of the meeting between the traditional rulers and the Commissioner of Police yielded no fruits as at press time.

Mike Okiro, Police IG