28th October, 2021
By Jethro Ibileke
A yet-to-be-identified mobile police operative on Thursday reportedly shot a female student at the gate of the headquarters building of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), in Benin City, Edo State.
The victim who’s name could not be confirmed, was among about 50 students selected from tertiary institutions across the nine Niger Delta States, under the aegis of Niger Delta Student’s Union Government for the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) workshop, organized by the NPDC in Benin City.
The students had on Wednesday prevented members of staff of the company from accessing the building complex.
They urged the management to implement the agreement reached at the recent PIA workshop, with the theme: “Upstream (E&P) sector of the Petroleum Industry Act and its corporate social responsibilities to host communities in the Niger delta region”.
The coordinator of the protest, Emieye Romio, who led other students to the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat in Benin City, said they were at the NPDC in continuation of their dialogue with the management when the female student was shot by the unidentified police operative.
He said they reconvened at the company’s gate hoping that the management would meet and possibly respond to their demands but when the policemen arrived the scene, one of them shot repeatedly to disperse the crowd of protesters and, unfortunately, the bullet hit the student’s leg.
“The lady that got hit by the bullet has been rushed to the hospital. We were here yesterday but they didn’t respond to us. We decided to come back today to air our grievances so that they can fulfill the agreement they had with us before the training began,” Romio said.
When contacted, Edo Police Command spokesman, SP Kontongs Bello, said he was at Okada and was yet to be briefed about the incident.