Arrest, outrage over videotaped lynching of UNIPORT students undergraduates

FOLLOWING the lynching of four students of the University of Port Harcourt, River State, the police have arrested Aluu community leader, Alhaji Hassan Walewa.
The police on Sunday morning stormed Aluu in Ikwerre Local Government Area, where the students were beaten to death and set ablaze by a mob. Our correspodents report that both the beating and the burning were videotaped and the film clip has gone viral on the Internet.
Also arrested by security agents were members of Walewa’s family and some students of the institution, who lived off campus.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the community was deserted when security agents and soldiers stormed the area in search of those who killed the students on Friday.                The lynched students were identified as Lloyd, Tekena, Ugonna and Chidiaka. Those who lynched the students reportedly accused  them of stealing laptops and phones.
 Speaking with our correspondent on Sunday, the immediate past President of UNIPORT’s Students’ Union, Mr. Rhino Owhorkire, expressed regrets that some students living within the community had also been arrested by the police.
Owhorkire explained that though the arrest of some members of the community was a welcome development, the arrest of “innocent” students living in the community was unnecessary.
He condemned the gruesome murder of the students, maintaining that the crowd should have handed them over to the police.
Owhorkire said, “We totally condemn the act that was perpetrated by the Omokiri Allu community. We ought to have gone beyond meting out jungle justice to anybody. They claimed the students were robbers, but nobody came out to say his property was stolen.
“We also heard that the students were cult members, who went to collect dues from other members. But the aggrieved colleagues decided to brand them thieves and this attracted some members of the community who killed them. We have been hearing a lot of rumours since the incident.”
He said that the UNIPORT SU had dissuaded students planning from embarking on a protest in Aluu community to shelve the idea in order to allow security agencies to carry out their investigation.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ben Ugwuegbulam, confirmed that some arrests were made in Aluu, adding that any person found not culpable would be released.
According to him, the police are making progress on their investigation based on the information at their disposal.
A source also said the video of how the students were killed was being investigated.
Also, the Public Relations Officer of UNIPORT, Dr. William Wodi, told PUNCH Metro that the university had yet to ascertain if the deceased were students of the university or not.
Wodi said the institution would make its position on the matter known to the public on Monday (today).

Conflicting acounts
Meanwhile, there were conflicting accounts on Sunday on how the students met their deaths. While some insisted that they were robbers, others claimed they were members of a cult. Yet, their friends said they were innocent.  Most of these disclosures were made on the Internet, especially the social media, where the  deceased students’ friends and loved ones also gave vent to their sorrow.
  On Nairaland, a popular  online discussion forum, some of the posters who claimed to be residents of the community where the incident took place insisted that the students were robbers. They claimed that the students were members of a cult group, that had terrorised the community for a long time.
These residents insisted that the students were found with laptops and phones in an uncompleted building, smoking Indian hemp. Villagers who sighted them reportedly informed the vigilance group in the area that some robbers had invaded the community.  According to these posters, the villagers, on getting the information, combed the area, found the students and lynched them.
But other contributors, who appeared to be students of UNIPORT, insisted that the students were not robbers but members of a secret cult.  One of the contributors wrote, “On that fateful day, they went to Aluu village to ‘‘ruffle’’ a particular person who happened to be a rival cult member.
“On getting there, they didn’t meet him at home. So, they decided to relax in a nearby bush.”
He added that it was the rival cult member that went to the vigilance group to allege that the students were armed robbers.
The anonymous contributor added, “Their rivals reported to the vigilante guys that the thieves terrorising the neighbourhood had been spotted.
“Knowing that  if they (the lynched students) were spared, they would retaliate, these rival members, posing as ordinary students, called for the heads of the boys and accused them of orchestrating several robberies in the area. They even arranged for some girls to claim they had been raped.”

Outrage on social media
There have been outrage on social media since the killings broke out  on Friday.  The majority of contributors on different fora insisted that the students shouldn’t have been lynched but handed over to the law enforcement agents.
Jennifer Okafor, a contributor on a blog, Information Nigeria, said, “God will judge those that did that to them. Why didn’t they take them to the police?  Ask those that killed those boys whether they have not stolen anything in their lives.  The sins of those boys will be on the heads of those that killed them.”
Francis Obiagwu, a student of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, also on the blog, wrote, “People should have just beaten them and let them go or got them arrested by the police, rather than killing them. The people that killed them should be punished for taking the law into their hands.”
On his part, Alfred O’keke wrote, “What in the world is going on in this country?  Have we lost our sense of humanity? That such a gruesome thing could happen to teenagers and there is no anger from the public. What is the difference between this and the killing of 42 students in Mubi in Adamawa State?  Jungle justice! Where are we headed in this place called Nigeria?
“Politicians are busy looting our common wealth and confining our generations to perpetual poverty and these are the ones we hail, idolise and make kings.”
Dejo Olowu said, “We see all these extreme outbursts of mob justice, jungle justice, anger and venom in Nigeria, yet, some of us will still argue this has nothing to do with government or with leadership. It is a trickle-down effect, a consequence of our collective psychosis.”

Where’s Cecilia Ibru’s loot?

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, southwest Nigeria yesterday morning ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN), to declare the total cash and properties recovered from the former Chief Executive Officer of Oceanic Bank, Mrs.Cecilia Ibru, within 72 hours. The court also ordered that the apex bank should declare the location of the properties and the money recovered.
The apex Nigeria’s banking sector regulatory institution was also ordered to make public what part of the cash and property had been returned to Oceanic Bank and its shareholders. The order of the court was sequel to a suit filed by a Lagos lawyer, Chuks Nwachukwu, on behalf of Mr. Boniface Okezie, President of Progressive Shareholders Association. Okezie had urged the CBN to disclose among other things the amount of legal fees paid to professionals and lawyers including Olanihun Ajayi and Kola Awodein Chambers in respect of the prosecution of Cecilia Ibru.
The plaintiff claimed he wrote a letter to the CBN demanding to know these facts but the CBN refused to respond. In a counter-affidavit filed by Prof. Gabriel Olawonyi on behalf of CBN, the apex bank said it was advised against releasing the information as it will violate the legal practitioner/client privileges principal. In his judgment delivered yesterday, the presiding judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, while not acceding to the request of the plaintiff that the amount paid to the lawyers involved should be disclosed, ordered that the total cash and property recovered from Cecilia Ibru should be made public by the CBN within 72 hours.
He also ordered that the whereabouts of the properties and monies recovered should be made public too. It would be recalled that a Federal High Court in Lagos in October 2010 sentenced a former Chief Executive Officer of Oceanic Bank International Plc, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, to 18 months imprisonment without an option of fine for granting $20 million and N2billion credit facilities above the approved limit by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had prosecuted the former bank chief on a 25-count charge of financial crimes before she entered into a plea bargaining with the anti-graft agency and pleaded guilty to a reduced three-count charge. The Chief Judge of the FHC, Justice Dan Abutu, thereafter convicted Ibru on the said three-count charge and ordered the forfeiture of her N191billion assets comprising 49 properties in Nigeria, United States and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to a Federal Government agency, the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
The forfeited properties include shares in over 100 firms that are listed and not listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The Chief Judge added that

Boko Haram kills 43 students in 4 higher institutions

It was a bloody 52nd Independence Day gift for four higher institutions when gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram massacred 43 students on Monday. Many people were injured, fueling fears that the death toll may rise. The schools attacked were Federal Polythecnic, Mubi, Adamawa State University and the School of Health Technology, Mubi.
The killings took place at a private hostel This is even as gunmen killed three students of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), also on Independence Day, as residents of the Borno State capital witnessed shootings and bomb explosions. The city witnessed a war-like situation as the military Joint Task Force (JTF) engaged the militants. While the Federal Polythechnic, Mubi lost 26 students, 14 were killed at the other two higher institutions.
The remaining students hurriedly left the hostel. In the Adamawa attack, a church and some buildings were also burnt by the gunmen who shot indiscriminately. Although the attack on the students’ hostel took place outside the campus, the management of the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi has shut down the institution whose examinations expected to start yesterday, had to be postponed. According to a senior staff of the institution, who doesn’t want tobe named, there was exodus of students from the campus while security had been beefed up at the hostels and the main campus.
A student who narrowly escaped the attack but lost two course mates, said that the gunmen stormed the area at 10.00pm and started shooting indiscriminately, killing many students who fled the private hostel for safety but were cut short by the bullets. The Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP), Dr. Stanley Stephen, told our correspondent that though he was not on campus, but that the gunmen opened fire on the students, set ablaze a church and other buildings.
Dr. Stephen, however disclosed that no lecturer was affected, but confirmed that the polytechnic had been closed as a result of the attack even though the students were to start their exams this morning. The National President of ASUP, Mr. Asomugha Chibuzor, described the killings of the over 26 students at Federal Polytechnic, Mubi as unfortunate and that information available to him indicates that there was exodus of students. The ASUP boss appealed to the Federal Government to tighten security around all the tertiary institutions in the country to avert similar attacks.
He said the nation cannot continue to waste its youth through such killings and urged the government to stop the menace. At the Adamawa state University, Mubi, undisclosed number of students were reportedly killed by the gunmen, while staff and students fled the campusdespite the dusk-to dawn 24-hour curfew imposed on Mubi by the state government. As at Press time, heads of security agencies in the state were said to be heading for Mubi, and its environs.
The state government had imposed curfew about three weeks ago. The JTF was able to arrest about 158 Boko Haram suspects who had volunteered statements that facilitated apprehension of top shots. The JTF has also recovered over 600 weapons, Including Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), arrows, daggers and other sophisticated weapons in Mubi and its environs. Similarly, in the course of house-to-house search, JTF discovered a number of factories, where bombs and other sophisticated weapons were manufactured in Mubi.
In Maiduguri, the first explosion occurred at about 7am around Bayan Quarters area, headquarters of the Boko Haram sect where a lone bomber was blown off on Monday. Sources said the suspect who was on a mission to attack telecom facilities around the area suddenly ran out of luck as his car which was highly wired with explosive devices went in flame, leading to his death.    While residents were still grappling with sporadic gunshots by JTF soldiers which trailed the explosion, another bomb targeted at the troops around a popular hotel along Lagos Street also went off, killing a soldier, three people were wounded.
A military source said the explosion occurred when a JTF patrol vehicle ran on IEDs suspected to have been planted by Boko Haram at about 7.50am on Monday. Hell was let loose as soldiers shot sporadically into the air till midday while residents around the area ran for safety. The popular Lagos Road which leads to two federal institutions; the University of Maiduguri and its teaching hospital (UMTH) was also cordoned off for most part of the day.
“We saw the body of a soldier being put in an ambulance with three other soldiers critically injured. But I cannot ascertain the condition of the other three soldiers when they evacuated them from the scene because soldiers were shooting and scaring everybody away from the area” a resident claimed. The JTF is yet to react to the incident even as its spokesman, Lt-Col Sagir Musa, who had earlier promised to furnish journalists some information on the incident did not do so as at Press time. Meanwhile, there were reports of killings in various parts of the metropolis since last weekend.
Two men were reportedly killed around the State Low Cost on Monday. Four people were killed at Forestry Quarters opposite former CBN Quarters along Damboa road in the city on Sunday night while three undergraduates of UNIMAID were slaughtered by unknown assassins in their rented apartments at 202 Housing Estate. Residents of the estate said the assailants sneaked into the area and slaughtered two of the students; a lady and a man while the third undergraduate was said to have escaped through the back door but was shot. “He later died in the hospital.
“He was a friend from southern Borno but his father is in Abuja,” one of his colleagues who identified himself as Ezekiel said. “We suspect ritual killing because we learnt some sensitive parts of one of the ladies, a part four law students were removed,” he added. The bodies of two of the slain students were discovered at an isolated area near the Maiduguri Water Treatment Plant. The killing of the students has heightened tension among parents and residents. However, UNIMAID said it cannot comment on the incident for now. “I’m sorry, we can’t comment on the incident now,” Chief Information Officer, Ahmed Tanko Mohammed, told Daily Sun.

Flood sacks 1,000 in Rivers

No fewer than 1,000 persons had been displaced by flood in Rivers State. This is even, as members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, led by its Chairman and former governor of Kwara State, Senator Bukola Saraki were on fact-finding mission in the state. The state Commissioner for Environment, Dr Nyema E. Weli, who was in the Committee’s entourage, was shocked at the magnitude of the havoc caused by the flood, which according to him, was not brought to the notice of his Ministry. The flood was as a result of the over-flow of River Niger which affected Orashi River.
Badly hit by the disaster were indigenes of Mbiama, Akinima, and four communities that made up Joinkrama in Ahoada-West Local Government Area. Not spared by the natural disaster were people living in Ndoni in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of the state. Most of the houses affected by the flood had been vacated, while those who had nowhere to run to, were seen floating on the water, probably, hoping that help could come their way someday.
A visit to the affected communities in Ahoada-West Local Government Area yesterday morning, revealed that many residents were making frantic efforts, to save their property and to evacuate displaced persons. Many buildings, including those under construction, were sub-merged by the ravaging flood. Also affected were, streets where residents used canoes to transport stranded victims to various points and safe areas. Farm lands were also covered by flood, while farmers were seen hurriedly harvested their crops prematurely, especially, cassava and yams, to avoid losing them to the flood. Daily Sun gathered that residents of the area usually witness flood in every month of November, due to the overflow of Orashi River, but this year’s disaster was described as exceptional.
This was also confirmed by an indigene of Edageberi-Betterland, in Joinkrama community, MrBonny Otatie Ulolo who described this year’s flood as unprecedented in the history of the communities. Expressing surprise at the ugly development, Dr. Weli said the state government was not informed of the flood by the authorities of Ahoada-East Local Government. The Commissioner, who inquired from the Permanent Secretary, why the flood incident had not been brought to his notice said: “ I was wondering where people are now staying, since water had taken over their houses.
I am not aware of this situation before now.” He, however, promised to bring the matter before the State Executive Council and the State House of Assembly. Reacting to the flood incident, Senator Saraki, who was deeply touched by the plight of the indigenes of the state, due to environmental degradation, regretted the displacement of people in the area, and assured that the Committee would make a formal request to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to come to their aid.
The Committee members, which included, Senator Oluwaje Kunlere, from Ondo-South and Senator Sadiq Yar’Adua, from Katsina –Central, had earlier visited Egita in Egiland, where there was gas eruption in April this year. Members of the Committee, who also visited the site of the gas eruption, said they were in Egita to see things for themselves.