Rivers shuts polytechnic as students protest

THE Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori, has been closed down indefinitely following a violence protest by students over the purported murder of one of their colleagues by security officials.

But the Rector, Obianko Nwolu-Elechi, has denied an allegation that a student was killed by security officials.

Hundreds of irate students had stormed the school campus yesterday following rumours that one of their colleagues who had altercation that resulted in a fight on Sunday with the Chief Security Officer of the institution and some security personnel attached to him, was dead. The students expressed their rage by burning some school buildings and looting items such as computers.

The Guardian gathered from eyewitnesses that the students also attacked security officials of the institution and barred people from entering the campus until armed policemen arrived and dispersed the angry through persistent firing of teargas canisters at them.

The eyewitness said that during the conduct of the Akwa Ibom Students Union election, there was disagreement between some students that resulted to invitation of the Chief Security Officer and his team to avert a breakdown of law and order. Shortly after their arrival, it was gathered that altercation ensued between a student and the security officials and this led to his manhandling by the security men who later handed him over to the police. And when the students spotted an ambulance in the school, rumours started spreading that the student who was beaten by security officials had died and this sparked off violence protest.

The protest forced the board of the school to hold an emergency meeting yesterday and it was decided that the institution should be closed down indefinitely.

The Rector, who announced the closure of the school, revealed that the said student was not dead but was rather in police custody.

He said: “The academic board had in an emergency meeting decided to shut down the school and the Chief Security Officer has been invited by the academic board and he gave a verbal brief because he was manhandled. The verbal brief he gave was that by noon yesterday (Sunday), he got information that union of Akwa Ibom students was conducting election and that there was somebody who was causing problem. So, he dispatched two of his men to find out what was happening. When they got there, they found out that there was a boy, also of Akwa Ibom origin, who was trying to disrupt the election and they invited the chief security officer to come there.”

So, he went there but the boy did not listen to him. Instead, what he did was to attack the men that he sent and then this morning (yesterday) people started peddling rumour that the boy was dead. The boy is not dead. The boy is in the police custody.”

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