UNIPORT killings: Community counts losses after students’ rampage

The people of Omuokiri Aluu
Community have begun to
count their losses barely 24
hours after students from the
University of Port Harcourt
embarked on reprisals to
avenge the killings of their
colleagues.
The angry students had on
Tuesday stormed the
community, burnt some houses,
cars and other property over the
torture and murder of the
students on Friday.
Four undergraduates of
UNIPORT were lynched by a
mob comprising members of
the community for allegedly
stealing laptop computer and a
BlackBerry phone.
The students were Biringa
Chiadika of the Theatre Arts
Department; Ugonna Obuzor of
Geology Department, Mike Toku
Llyod of Civil Engineering
Department and Tekena Elkena.
When our correspondent visited
the community on Wednesday,
few of the indigenes were seen
bemoaning their losses.
One of the leaders of the
community, Sunday Ahanonu,
said he had lost all he laboured
for to the students’ reprisals.
Ahanonu, whose house was
torched by the students,
expressed shock that security
agents could not stop the
rampaging students when they
stormed the community.
Sixty-five-year-old Ahanonu and
father of 15 children, worked at
UNIPORT for 35 years before he
retired.
He appealed to the state
government and the
management of the university to
compensate him for the
destruction of his property,
adding that he and members of
his family were not involved in
the killings of the students.
Ahanonu said, “I am a retired
civil servant. I worked with
UNIPORT for 35. But all I have
achieved for many years have
been destroyed by students
from the university. I don’t know
where my family and I will lay
our heads when my only house
has been burnt.
“I lost the sum of N850,000
cash, which I kept in my house. I
could not take the money to the
bank because I was not feeling
okay and went to the hospital. It
was at the hospital that I learnt
that my house was burnt by the
students.”
Also, a woman, who identified
herself as Pauline Nwakwo, told
our correspondent that she left
the village when she learnt that
security agents had embarked
on mass arrest, but came back
to notice that her bar had been
burgled.
According to her, the rampaging
students forcibly entered her
bar and carried away her deep
freezer and drinks.
She said, “As a woman, I had to
run away when we noticed that
the police were embarking on
mass arrest. The students broke
the door to my bar and took
away a deep freezer I bought
for N66,000. I want government
to pay me back all I have lost.
“The students were killed far
from here at the Burrow pit. We
don’t know anything about the
killings of the students.”
Indigenes of the community
were also seen leaving their
homes in droves to other places
in order to avoid being attacked
by the students.
One of them, who gave her
name as Comfort, said she was
relocating her children to Elele in
Rivers State and would only
return to Omuokiri Aluu
whenever normalcy returns.
An artisan, Mr. Wisdom Ajuwon,
who repairs home appliances
along the Omuokiri Aluu Road,
said he lost property worth
about N500,000 to the riotous
students.
Showing a list of what he lost to
the fire ignited by students,
Ajuwon also appealed to the
state government to come to his
aid.
A cleric in the area, Pastor John
Paul, described the situation in
the community as terrible,
adding that people were
running out of their homes like
refugees.
Source: Punch