No fewer than two students of FIDEI
Polytechnic, Gboko in Benue State were feared dead when protesting
students of the institution clashed with policemen and suspected
hoodlums on Wednesday.
This is as another student was said to
have been hospitalised and two policemen injured in the clash while
properties worth millions of naira were destroyed.
The crisis was said to have broken out in early hours of Tuesday and ran through Wednesday evening.
An eyewitness told our correspondent that among the properties destroyed were the school bakery, bursary, ranch and pen house.
Trouble, an eyewitness, Terfa Guum, told
our correspondent on the telephone, started when some final year
students who had not paid their fees were barred from taking the second
semester examination.
The students were said to have gathered and embarked on a peaceful demonstration to protest their exclusion from the examination as well as delay in the issuance of examination permit.
FIDEI polytechnic is owned by Rev. Fr. Chris Utov of the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi.
Guum said immediately the protest
commenced, policemen stormed the school premises firing teargas
canisters and shooting sporadically.
He said, ‘In the process, a student was hit on the chest and he died instantly while another died at the hospital.”
As the crisis raged on, hoodlums known
as ‘Shawa’ were said to have entered the institution to dislodge the
students but they were overpowered by the students.
The authorities of the polytechnic,
however, had since shut down the institution and also announced the
outright cancellation of the examination.
Angered by the cancellation, the
students were said to have regrouped and embarked on a massive
destruction of the school property.
When contacted, the Rector of the
institution, Ugo Abah, said h
Yamu said one student was stabbed to
death by the miscreants and that the police were not aware of the death
of the second person.
e was on his way to the Police
Headquarters, Makurdi to lay a formal complaint.
When contacted, the Benue State Police
Command Public Relations Officer, Moses Yamu, said ‘’ Yes, there is
crisis going on at the FIDEI Poly, Gboko. Miscreants and students
overpowered policemen during a peaceful protest in the school and in the
process, two police officers were injured and six vehicles, one
belonging to the police, were damaged.”
Yamu said one student was stabbed to
death by the miscreants and that the police were not aware of the death
of the second person.
The PPRO also said 21 persons had been arrested in connection with the crisis.
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