Controversy as final year students deny ownership of weapons

*Police: They’re cultists

Four students of the Covenant Polytechnic Aba, Abia State, are likely going to be rusticated from school if they failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that weapons found in their bags, doesn’t belong to them.

The unlucky undergraduates, who have persistently denied knowing anything about the weapons, have been identified as Aigbemen Courage Eremosele, Udu John Mba, Charles Okeke and Simon Okoye.

Investigators are working on the theory that the students could only be members of cult groups.

The Abia State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Leye Oyebade, said that items recovered from the suspects include, one locally made double barrel short gun, two live cartridges, fetish charm and black axe sticker.

One of the suspects, Okeke, from Enugu Ukwu in Anambra State, HND 1 Computer Engineering student of the private polytechnic, said he was arrested for innocently assisting his fellow student to carry his school bag.

The controversial short gun and other incriminating items were found inside the bag.

He explained:  “Mba gave me the bag to carry for him. When I got to the security post of the school, it was discovered that the bag contained the items. I was arrested along with a school mate.”

According to Okoye, from Agidi, Enugu State, he knew Mba was a bad boy and warned Okeke about the danger inherent in assisting him to carry his bag.

Okoye said that while he was still warning Okeke, they got to the gate and Okeke handed the bag over to the security officers in the school.

The security guards carried out a thorough search of the bag and discovered the short gun.

But Mba, from Afikpo South in Ebonyi State: “It was Okoye that planted the gun in my bag. He had earlier attempted to hurt me. Okoye is dangerous and had tried on different occasions to hurt me. I carried the bag to the security post and dropped it there by myself before going into the examination hall. I didn’t give it to anyone to carry for me.”

Eremosele, from Esan Central, Edo State, said he was writing his exams when one of the security guards called him out.

He said that when he resisted the invitation because of the ongoing examination, the man alerted other security officers. They came and insisted that Eremosele should come with them.

Eremosele said that when he came down, “I saw Okeke and Okoye in handcuffs. I asked Okeke what was the matter, he said the bag Mba gave him, got him into trouble. But I don’t know anything about it.”

The Oyebade, said:  “The robust synergy of the Abia State Police Command, with other security outfit, paid off when on October 28, 2016, officers of Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN), attached to Covenant Polytechnic Aba, arrested and handed over four undergraduates to the operatives of the police at Ohuru Isimiri Division.”

Oyebade alleged that the suspects were National Diploma final year students of the polytechnic and members of Aye and Black Axe confraternities.