The Rivers State Government has placed a ban on all student union activities in the state-owned Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori in Khana Local Government Area of the state.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Student Affairs, Osika Tamuno, revealed this in an interview with newsmen, following violent protest at the institution last week.
While condemning the riot by some students in the campus, Tamuno stressed that the ban would remain until investigations were concluded.
The special adviser to the governor on student affairs also dismissed rumours that a student was killed during the violent protest, where property worth millions of naira were destroyed.
Asika said: “The two ICT centres provided by TETFUND and ETF were utterly destroyed, vandalized and looted. Computers and other important property were also carted away.
“They destroyed anything they cannot carry.
“Government condemns the act in its totality, and we will not rest until the perpetrators are brought to book.
“I have also established contact with the student that was rumoured had died. The said student is not dead. The police actually released him. I have talked with the student. We heard that he is in a hospital in Port Harcourt.
“Government is now sounding it loud and clear that all student related activities in the Rivers State Polytechnic be suspended until further notice.”
Following this development, some students from Rivers South-East called on the commissioner of police to investigate the riot at the Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori.
The Rivers South East Students Association (RSESA) made the call with a view to avoiding a negative precedence in the institution.
The students’ body also commended Ogoni leaders for coming together to make a common demand for the 2015 governorship election under the Ogoni Leadership Forum.
The Coordinator of the association, Legborsi Yamaabana said students of Rivers South-East were in support of the call on all political parties to adopt Ogoni governorship candidates for the election next year.
Similarly, an Ogoni rights activist, Celestine Akpobari has faulted the response by the police to the crisis in the State Polytechnic.
Akpobari said it was wrong for the police to use maximum force against the protesting students whom he said were not armed.
Akpobari also hinted that some concerned individuals in the state have initiated efforts to ensure justice in the matter.
It would be recalled that the institution had been closed down last Wednesday following a violent protest by some students aggrieved over police attempts to arrest another student who assaulted three police officers, and tore their uniforms.
The police had been called in to restore law and order to a seemingly deteriorating disagreement over the conduct of election into Akwa Ibom State indigenes’ unit of the Student Union Government on the campus.
The Tide gathered that the election had earlier been suspended by the management of the institution following ongoing examinations in the school.
But in an attempt to outsmart the management, the Akwa Ibom students had sneaked into the institution on a public holiday to mark Nigeria’s 54th Independence Anniversary, and began moves to hold the election in defiance of the school authority’s decision to suspend the process.
In the ensuing protest, however, the students were said to have vandalized school properties worth millions of Naira, including official vehicles, computers, office equipment, among others, and barricaded the entrance to the institution.
Reacting to the incident, Provost of the school, Obianko Worlu-Elechi condemned the action, and said that the school has been shut down to enable security operatives restore peace to the hitherto peaceful institution.
Also speaking in an interview, President of the SUG, Ms Queen Nwachukwu, condemned the Akwa Ibom students for going ahead to conduct election into offices during examination period, saying that the school authorities and the SUG had earlier agreed to move every election in the campus for student bodies until further notice.
She expressed the SUG’s support for the management’s position to close down the school, and also called on the state government and security agencies to conduct a thorough investigation into the real motive behind the conduct of the Akwa Ibom students, with regard to the election.

Rivers State Commissioner for Youth Development, Sir Owene Wonodi (right), cycling among other participants during a cancer awareness road show in Port Harcourt last Saturday