River State Polytechnic Shut Down

THE Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori, has been closed
down indefinitely following a violence protest by students
over the purported murder of one of their colleagues by
security officials.
But the Rector, Obianko Nwolu-Elechi, has denied an
allegation that a student was killed by security officials.
Hundreds of irate students had stormed the school
campus yesterday following rumours that one of their
colleagues who had altercation that resulted in a fight on
Sunday with the Chief Security Officer of the institution
and some security personnel attached to him, was dead.
The students expressed their rage by burning some
school buildings and looting items such as computers.
The Guardian gathered from eyewitnesses that the
students also attacked security officials of the institution
and barred people from entering the campus until armed
policemen arrived and dispersed the angry through
persistent firing of teargas canisters at them.
The eyewitness said that during the conduct of the Akwa
Ibom Students Union election, there was disagreement
between some students that resulted to invitation of the
Chief Security Officer and his team to avert a breakdown
of law and order. Shortly after their arrival, it was
gathered that altercation ensued between a student and
the security officials and this led to his manhandling by
the security men who later handed him over to the police.
And when the students spotted an ambulance in the
school, rumours started spreading that the student who
was beaten by security officials had died and this
sparked off violence protest.
The protest forced the board of the school to hold an
emergency meeting yesterday and it was decided that the
institution should be closed down indefinitely.
The Rector, who announced the closure of the school,
revealed that the said student was not dead but was
rather in police custody.
He said: “The academic board had in an emergency
meeting decided to shut down the school and the Chief
Security Officer has been invited by the academic board
and he gave a verbal brief because he was manhandled.
The verbal brief he gave was that by noon yesterday
(Sunday), he got information that union of Akwa Ibom
students was conducting election and that there was
somebody who was causing problem. So, he dispatched
two of his men to find out what was happening. When
they got there, they found out that there was a boy, also
of Akwa Ibom origin, who was trying to disrupt the
election and they invited the chief security officer to come
there.”
 So, he went there but the boy did not listen to him.
Instead, what he did was to attack the men that he sent
and then this morning (yesterday) people started peddling
rumour that the boy was dead. The