FOUR UNIPORT STUDENTS LYNCHED TO DEATH

The four students killed

FOUR students of the University of Port Harcourt were on Friday lynched in Aluu Community, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State.Different versions of what happened on Friday have been bandied around.According to a blackberry chat the four boys had gone to recover a debt owed to one and when the debtor could not pay up,they forcefully took his laptop and phone away.The debtor started shouting ''thief,thief which resulted in people in the community gathering and beating up the boys for the alleged theft.The students, who were identified as Lloyd, Tekena, Ugonna and Chidiaka, were beaten and later set ablaze by the mob suspected to be members of the community.

It was gathered that the community saw the situation as an opportunity to vent their anger on the students after being terrorised by armed robbers within the past three months.

Photographs of how the four suspects were killed were immediately placed on the social media, even as most commentators condemned the act and described it as jungle justice.

The State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ben Ugwuegbulam, confirmed the incident and added that investigation into the murder of the students was ongoing.

“Nobody has the right to kill a fellow human being. We expected that the suspects should have been handed over to the police and not the jungle justice that was meted out to them (suspects),” he said.

Reacting to the incident, the UNIPORT’s Public Relations Officer, Dr. William Wodi, told SUNDAY PUNCH that he had yet to confirm if those killed by a mob were students of the institution.