UNIPORT Students Murder: Police Nab Village Head, 12 Others

Rivers State Governor Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi with chairman Ogba/Egbema Ndoni LGA Nwokocha Raymond during the governor's visit to the flooded Omoku community

The Rivers State Government has said that the traditional
ruler and other stakeholders of Umuokiri village in Aluu, Ikwerre Local
Government Area, have been arrested and full investigations commenced  into the circumstances that led to the murder
of four engineering students of University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) in broad
day light in the community, last Friday.

Aluu, in Ikwerre Local Government Area, contributes a large
expanse of land to the federal university community, and shares boundaries with
Choba, Rumuosi and Alakahia, all in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the
state.

The four victims include Tekena Kalio, Ugonna Obusor,
Chiadikobi Biringa, Lloyd Toku Mike.

Making the government’s action known to newsmen yesterday in
Port Harcourt, Commissioner of Information and Communications, Mrs Ibim
Semenitari said government cannot fold its arms and watch some people take the
law into their hands, adding that no citizen has the right to take another’s
life.

While pleading with the students of UNIPORT and other
residents of the state to remain calm and law-abiding, the commissioner pledged
the commitment of the government to take every necessary step to bring the
perpetrators of the dastardly act to book.

She said that the traditional ruler and others in custody
would help the security agencies to unravel the circumstances surrounding the
murder of the students, saying that some of those involved in the act have
already been arrested.

Reacting earlier to the incident, Rivers State Police
Command said that its crack operatives had moved into action to unravel the
circumstances surrounding the lynching of the students, and bring those
involved to book.

The police confirmed last Saturday, that the command
received a call from the scene of the crime but that by the time a team from
the Swift Operation Squad arrived the place, the victims were already dead.

In an interview in Port Harcourt, Police Public Relations
Officer, Ben Ugwuegbulam, said the command has commenced investigations into
the lynching of four students at Umuokiri, Aluu, near the University of Port
Harcourt, last Friday.

According to him, “we have deposited their bodies in a
mortuary. We received a call from the scene of the crime and by the time our
men got to the place, the victims were already dead.”

However, Deputy Registrar (Public Relations), University of
Port Harcourt, Dr Williams Wodi, told newsmen that the university authorities
could not say as at the time of filing this report, if the victims were
students of the institution, adding that the incident took place outside the
university community.

Wodi further stressed that the management of the university
was waiting for a report from the chief security officer of the institution on
the incident before making any categorical statement.

Our reporter, who visited to the village last Saturday and
yesterday, reports that the community has turned a ghost land as residents are
hardly found around in the hitherto busy suburb of the federal university.

The scene of the brutal murder of the students looked like a
battle ground, with clubs, used tyres, woods and others littering the
environment, as charred patches dotted the area.

An eye witness account said that the four students were
allegedly caught by the community’s vigilante with ‘arms’ at about 4.30am on
Friday, adding that when asked the source of the ‘arms’ in their possession,
the victims failed to explain but rather said they were not armed robbers.

Nelson Chukwudi