Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Slain lecturer: Students call for panel of inquiry

Worried by the way and manner  the lecturer  of Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja,  Mr  Nathaniel Abimaje, was murdered  last weekend, the students  of the institution  have  appealed to the  state governor, Captain Idris Wada, to set up  a panel of inquiry to investigate the killing.

National Association of Ebira Students, (NAES), Kogi State Polytechnic chapter, made the appeal while reacting to insinuations that the crisis that led to the death of the senior lecturer was as a result of misunderstanding between Ebira and Igala students.

The president  of the association,  Mr Icha Anate Nathaniel, alleged  that the crisis started when an invigilator caught Ademu Ojomugwo, the Gabayidu of Igala, a student of  the Department of Public Administration, HND 11 of the institution, for examination malpractices.

He mentioned  that when he was caught, the news spread all over the  campus that somebody who supposed to lay good example for other students to emulate had been apprehended for involving in examination malpractices.

Anate  Nathaniel said some Igala students felt that it would be a shame on their side if the Gabayidu faced examination panel and the only way they could stop that was to cause violence on campus, adding that the late lecturer was among the panel to investigate those involved in the examination malpractice.

According to him, the late lecturer who happened to be an Igala by tribe,  was said to have turned down their request when he was allegedly approached by the Igala students to exonerate their Chief.

He noted that as a result of this, some Igala students went on rampage on Friday night as they allegedly attacked and killed the senior lecturer for his refusal to cooperate and also  attacked an Ebira student  who was reading in one of the lecture rooms close to where they attacked the senior lecturer.

Mr Nathaniel, therefore, on behalf of the Ebira students, urged the state government  to look into the crisis and bring to book those that killed the senior lecturer and also to disabuse the mind of the people that the crisis was not an ethnic crisis between Ebiras and Igalas but purely on examination malpractice.
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