Police shot and killed at least one student of the University of Uyo
Wednesday as a demonstration by students over insufficient lecture venues and
campus transit buses transportation system turned violent, witnesses said.
Some residents
of the area said three students may have died after police fired live
ammunitions into a crowd of protesting students. But the witnesses said they
were certain of one casualty. Police authorities in Uyo could not be
immediately reached for comments.
A school
spokesperson, Godfrey Essien, said he was on leave and was piecing details of
what actually happened.
Residents say
the students, mainly of Science and Engineering faculties, went on rampage for
several hours on Wednesday in protest of poor transportation system for
students after authorities ordered the relocation of the Science faculty from
the school's temporary site along Ikpa Road to the permanent site at Nsukara
Offot.
The new site
lacks enough infrastructures to accommodate the relocating Science students,
and the Engineering students who had moved in earlier, leading to frequent
confrontations.
The Engineering
students are said to occasionally bar the Science students from using the
limited lecture rooms and school shuttles between the old and new campuses,
about 10 kilometers apart.
N200 per
day bus
The transfer
of the Science students merely compounded the hardship already faced by
students on the permanent site, situated along the road leading to the city's
new airport.
The tipping
point for the students, according to residents, came after the Science students
were ordered to pay N200 per day to use the campus shuttle buses, against the
N1, 000 paid per semester by the Engineering students for the same service.
"The
students just said they cannot have that again and they blocked the roads and
everywhere," the resident said.
Earlier
reports said police fired tear gas at hundreds of students who barricaded the
school's entrances after forcing out security personnel.
A witness who
spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said the students refused to leave their line as the
hours wore on, insisting on being addressed by the school's Vice Chancellor
before dispersing.
After the
police attack, furious students set the Vice Chancellor's office alight,
alongside the school's security post and a hostel block.
The police
attack came months after a similar incident Nasarawa state university where
students were shot and killed allegedly by security forces drafted to quell a
protest over lack of water.
No one has
been punished for the Nasarawa killings months after, and no report has been
delivered on an investigation ordered by the state government.
Credits to allafrica.com
