Thick smoke billowed in the air as some properties were torched at the University of Uyo (UNIUYO) in Akwa Ibom State, following the death of a student during a protest last week. KAZEEM IBRAHYM, SAM IBOK and JOY RIMAN report.
It was a black day last Wednesday at the University of Uyo (UNIUYO) in Akwa Ibom State, following the death of a student during a protest. The demonstration started as a solidarity rally by students early in the morning. It continued into the afternoon. But, before evening, it degenerated into full-blown violence, following the student’s death on the arrival of riot policemen invited by the management to disperse the protesters.
The students were protesting what they called “bad policies” of the Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Comfort Ekpo. They were protesting, among others, the introduction of N2,000 General Study (GST) course fee and the hike in transport fare from mini campus on Ikpa Road to the permanent site at Nsukara Offot in Nwaniba, Uyo. The university management jacked up the fare from N100 to N200.
The students went round the campus, calling the authorities’ attention to their plight. The protest turned violent when the riot policemen arrived. The police fired teargas canisters and shot sporadically to disperse the protesters. In the melee, a 200-Level Zoology student, Kingsley Umoette, died.
On learning about Kingsley’s death, his colleagues went wild, destroying school properties worth millions of naira. Private properties were not spared.
The students and the police have been trading word over what led to Kingsley’s death.
A member of the Students’ Union Government (SUG), who pleaded not to be named, said a security agent shot Kingsley. He said Kingsley’s “killing” drew the ire of the protesters who torched the offices of the VC Deputy Vice-Chancellor, (VC) (Academic) and Records.
A visit to the city campus showed that 12 vehicles, some of them owned by the university, were destroyed.
Other properties destroyed included equipment in the Exams and Records Unit, Finance and Accounts, Internal Audit and Cash Office. The Computer Maintenance Department was vandalised and hard discs and other facilities removed.
“We were only throwing pebbles, sachets of water and bottles but it was obvious that the police only came to the scene to kill us. They (the police) were shooting sporadically and firing tear gas at us. They fired teargas canisters into the female hostels. Many of our female students got injured. Their bullet killed Kingsley,” the anonymous SUG official said.
But the police said they could not explain what killed Kingsley because his body was brought from the campus to the road where they were stationed during the protest.
Police spokesman Etim Dickson said more than 45 protesters, including UNIUYO students and their colleagues from the Federal Polytechnic, Bida (BIDA POLY) and Madonna University, were in custody for the riot.
“It has been established that one student died during the (last Wednesday) protest by University of Uyo students. A 200-Level Geology student died. We were able to get this from the students who brought the body from inside the campus to the road.
“You know we cannot enter the campus, we have to be outside. It was the protesting students who brought the body to us on the road and it was collected from them.
“The mother of the deceased has come to us. She made a statement. I want to say one 200-Level student died. The cause of the death we don’t know yet.
“Also, about 45 other students coming from different universities were arrested. Some of the students arrested during the protest came from BIDA POLY and we also have some from Madonna University.
“What killed the boy from inside the school we don’t know. They only dropped the body on the road because they said they wanted to carry the body to Government House and we told them not to do so; it is not their duty and we collected the body from them.”
On the students’ claim that a trigger-happy policeman shot their colleague, Etim said: “Let the students find out who shot the boy and at what point. They will claim but investigation will prove. Even there is a big charm tied to the left wrist of the body. I don’t know whether it is a modern wristwatch.”
A former Dean, Faculty of Arts, UNIUYO, Prof Des Wilson, blamed the management for allowing the protest to fester till the evening.
“I also believe that the management of the university did not do the right thing because I am told that the protest started in the morning before 8am. Why was it allowed to fester till late in the evening because I was told that the students started burning things around 5pm.
“What happened? What was going on between the students and the management? I suppose there were lapses along the line that made such destruction possible. I am unhappy about the loss of a student’s life,” he said.
A student from the Faculty of Science, who pleaded for anonymity, said: “We resumed for second semester only to hear that we will now be receiving lectures at the university’s permanent site. We were told that the management had brought in a private firm to handle transportation from the mini-campus to the permanent site but at the rate of N200. They also asked us to pay N2,000 for GST. Why such unholy increment?”
While conducting Governor Godswill Akpabio round the vandalised properties, Prof Ekpo said the school introduced the fare on the recommendation of a committee. The panel members discussed and agreed on the payment of new transport fare by the students, she said.
Prof Ekpo said the school decided to increase the transport fare from N100 to N200 from the mini-campus to the permanent site after students on the committee brought a transporter to the school authority for approval. She wondered why the students later went on protest.
Akpabio called for “full investigation” into the riot to bring the perpetrators to book. The governor described the riot as “criminal, targeted and pre-meditated.”
He observed that miscreants took advantage of the disagreement between the school and the students to wreak havoc, saying that it was a pre-planned arrangement by the miscreants who pretended to be students of the institution.
Akpabio said: “This act is a disaster. My observation here is that the destruction of the buildings was targeted at the 20-year-old school records and examination results. It was a pre-planned arrangement by miscreants, who are ‘professional students’ using the opportunity of the peaceful protest to raze buildings where the school’s academic records were kept.”
Speaking during the visit of the National Universities Commission (NUC), the Chairman, Inter-ministerial Committee on Campus Safety, Prof Adebisi Balogun, decried destruction of properties by protesters. He said the protest that claimed a life was beyond increment in transport fare.
He said: “Since this university came to being in 1991, we have never experienced this type of destruction unleashed on the school. Therefore, a lot of things must have gone wrong. We don’t want to pre-empt any investigation but definitely we cannot say because of N100 that a whole campus is burnt down. No. There is more to it than meet the eye.”
He appealed to students to always employ the option of dialogue.
Monday Jimoh, 200-Level Agricultural Engineering, told CAMPUSLIFE: “The policemen, who were supposed to calm the situation, were the people shooting at students.”
“We were not armed but the police came with all sorts of ammunition to a peaceful protest embarked upon by the students,” Victor Albert, a final year Engineering student told our correspondents.
The university has since been shut.
