Anger Over Aluu Killings

Violent protest by students of the University of Port Harcourt over the killing of four of their colleagues leads to the closure of the institution

The 5 October murder of four students of the University of Port Harcourt at the Umuokiri community of Aluu in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, has continued to attract condemnation by people who believe that the students should have been handed over to the police rather than the people, with the support of their traditional ruler, taking the law into their own hands.

Trouble started when four second year undergraduates of UNIPORT – Biringa Lordson of Theatre Arts Department;  Ugonna  Obuzor of Geology Department;  Michael Toku of  Civil Engineering  Department, and Tekena Erikena – were beaten and burnt in Aluu for allegedly stealing a laptop computer and BlackBerry phone. The murder was videotaped.

The students began their protest last week by blocking the East/West road. They attempted to manhandle their Vice-Chancellor, Professor Joseph Ajeinka, when he tried to address them to take things easy, but he narrowly escaped. The protest turned violent, with the students setting ablaze houses of some residents at Umuokiri community.

To prevent anarchy, the Rivers State government stepped in. Mrs Ibim Semenitari, Commissioner for Information, against the backdrop of news of arson being committed, warned that students had no right to destroy life and property no matter their anger over what had happened. In her words: “Just as the government will deal decisively with those who killed the students, it will not fold its hands and watch innocent people killed by students in reprisal attacks.”

Security was immediately beefed up in and around the university community, with Joint Task Force operatives deployed there by the government to maintain order. But as tension rose, the management of the university ordered its immediate closure, to forestall a breakdown of law and order on the campus. It had earlier declared seven days of mourning for the dead and suspended the Students’ Union Week that was to start last Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Rivers State Police Command has charged 11 of the suspects arrested in connection with the murder. They were arraigned in court last Tuesday, and remanded with no plea taken. There are various versions of what led to the killing of the students. One account has it that an indigene of Aluu owed Ugonna some money and had vowed not to repay him. Ugonna, who was popularly known by his stage name, Tipsy, eyeing a percentage if the debt was recovered, accompanied his friend to track the debtor. They were joined by their roommate, Chidiaka. On their way to the place, they met one of their friends, Tekena, who also joined the mission to track down the debtor.

According to the account, when they got to the debtor’s house in the early hours of Friday 5 October, the debtor was recalcitrant and an altercation ensued. A next-door neighbour to the alleged debtor, believing that robbers were on the prowl, panicked and raised an alarm that attracted other residents and the Umuokiri village vigilance group members. All the students’ pleas and denials that they were not thieves fell on deaf ears. They were pounced on, beaten with all manner of clubs and dragged into a muddy pit. After getting a nod from the village chief that they should be eliminated as common criminals, the students were beaten as they were being paraded stark naked round the village. When they had been beaten to near-unconsciousness, tyres were put around their necks and they were set ablaze. The villagers took time to record the drama on video.

While the mob action was on, a distress call was made to Llyod’s father, Toku Mike, who is the Director of Programmes, Radio Rivers Broadcasting Service. The ace broadcaster narrated: “On receiving the message, the police were mobilised but claimed that they were overwhelmed by the angry mob and had to run away. My son was neither a thief nor a cultist. I got a distress call from him that day. But by the time JTF arrived, they had killed and burnt him and the others.”

A close friend of Ugo and Lloyd reacted by calling on President Jonathan to take action against those behind the murder. The young man who pleaded that his identity be kept secret said: “Mr President, those four boys who were killed at Aluu near Uniport were my young friends. I was their mentor. Two of them were promising rappers and singers. I am forwarding their work, ironically titled Ain’t No Love in the City.”

Friends of the killed students denied they were cultists. In a chat with Radio Port Harcourt, Michael Lestar and Odu Chize, both students, said the four were not only students but maintained a cordial relationship with their colleagues. Events have since shown that the slain students were not criminals. Lloyd and Ugonna, apart from being cousins, jointly won a recent rapping contest organised by Silverbird Television in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Both were said to have recorded a mixed-tape entitled Heart of the City.

Immediately after the killing of the four was made known, enraged students of UNIPORT called for justice. Soye Maxwell Nyamabo, President of the Students’ Union Government, SUG, of the university, who had earlier denied that the students were protesting, stressed that the leadership of the union had been appealing to the students to remain calm and allow security agencies to do their job. He however charged the security agencies to endeavour to fish out perpetrators of the dastardly act, saying, “If that is not done, we may not be able to control the students any longer.”

The SUG President’s appeal went unheeded and some students moved to Aluu and began to set houses and cars ablaze until security operatives arrived to disperse them. Mr. Rhino Owhorkire, immediate past SUG president, said 30 students were injured during the incident that took place at about 4.30 p.m. Owhokire, who hails from Aluu, stated that he tried to no avail to calm the students and stop them from going ahead to torch the buildings. NANS Treasurer, South-East and South-South, Mr. Iyere Onono, urged government to address the grievances of the students.

The issue was also at the centre of the deliberations at the House of Representatives, with members ordering the Inspector-General of Police to appear before its committee on Police Affairs to explain what he had done so far to contain the wave of violent crimes in the country. At the Upper legislative chambers, Senate President David Mark expressed his support for the creation of state police in the face of what he described as the “perceived failure of the police to stem insecurity in the country”. He said he was against the call for the setting up of state police but with the events that happened at Aluu and Mubi, where students were slaughtered without the intervention of the police, it has become apparent that, with the current structure of the police, it can no longer discharge its constitutional roles effectively.

Commenting on the debate on a motion brought by Senator Ayogu Eze and 98 other senators on the Aluu killings, Mark said, “We are worried that this has happened, and it is a test case for the police because the video is there for them to identify the perpetrators and they should quickly bring them to book.” Senator Olubunmi Adetumbi said the Aluu killing was an expression of an angry nation that was becoming disconnected from humanity, as a result of accumulated years of disappointment and neglect by government.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, last Tuesday issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the Federal and Rivers State governments to apprehend and punish the killers. But before the expiration of the ultimatum the students had resorted to reprisal action against the community. The mother of one of the murdered students has however petitioned the Senate, demanding that justice be done. In a petition dated 9 October 2012, addressed to the President of the Senate, mother of the late Chiadika, Mrs. Chinwe Biringa, said perpetrators of the heinous crime must not go unpunished.

In the petition, Chinwe said when her son turned 20 years two weeks ago, he was given money to mark his birthday with his friends. “On Friday morning, we were called by my second son, also a UNIPORT student, that all was not well; that he was hearing bad rumours that villagers in Aluu had murdered four students. I immediately rushed to the scene only to see my son’s dead body being taken away naked to a mortuary in the UNIPORT Teaching Hospital. I could not believe my eyes and I collapsed. What did my son do? What did the other three young men who died with him do?”

—Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt. Published in TheNEWS magazine.