Bloodbath In University Of Uyo **Police Kills 4 Students **School Shot Down **UNIUYO On Fire As VC’s And Registrar Are Currently Burning The University of Uyo (UNIUYO) in Akwa Ibom, South-South Nigeria, is currently burning as students riot over the alleged shooting of four of their colleagues by the police. “Four of our colleagues have just been shot dead by the police,” a UNIUYO student laments “It’s unfortunate.” An Uyo-based journalist, Akaninyene Oton, named Kingsley Okon Edet a.k.a Kesy as one of those shot dead by the police. He said that the offices of the Vice Chancellor, Professor (Mrs.) Comfort Memfin Ekpo, and the Registrar was burnt down yesterday. “UNIUYO right now is still burning as police continues to mount vigilance over adjoining streets,” Oton said an ireporter. According to News Express trouble started when the Vice Chancellor ordered students of the Faculty of Science to move to the Main Campus at Nwaniba. The students asked for buses to convey them to lectures in view of the distance and launched a protest when the request was not granted. Later in the afternoon, UNIUYO authorities called in the police, then tragedy. According to Oton, there was “heavy shootings and tear-gassing along Ikot Ekpene, Ikpa, Ibiam roads by UNIUYO axis by the police to disperse the protesting students.” A UNIUYO student interviewed by News Express blamed the school authorities, saying that the relocation of the students should not have been done mid-session. Meanwhile University has been closed down following the students protest over insufficient lecture venues and increase in transport charges from the town campus to its permanent site. It was gathered that trouble started on Wednesday afternoon when the students went on peaceful protest asking the university authorities to reverse its decision of increasing the transportation fare from the town campus to its permanent site at Nsukara Offot in the outskirts of Uyo from N100 to N200 per student per day. A resident of the school community said the students, mainly of Science and Engineering faculties, went on rampage in protest against the relocation of the Science Faculty from the school’s temporary site along Ikpa Road to the permanent site. The new site lacks enough infrastructures to accommodate the relocating Science students, and the Engineering students who had moved in earlier, leading to infrequent confrontation. The Engineering students are said to occasionally bar the Science students from using the limited lecture rooms and school shuttle buses between the old and new campuses, about 10 kilometres apart. But for the timely intervention of a team of police officers, the protest which spilled into the street would have degenerated into violence. While the protest was on, the university senate was holding an emergency meeting over the issue. The Vice Chancellor, Comfort Ekpo could not be reached for comments on the protest but her office and the town campus main gate were in flames at the time of filing this report. The Co-ordinator of Peace on Campus Initiative, Oliver Cromwell said his organisation was working with security agencies to calm the situation.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 03:33:22 +0000
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