Yesterday,
we were shocked with the news and pictures of the gruesome murder of
four students of University of Port-Harcourt. The naked pictures of the
students showing them paraded, beaten with their bodies soaked in blood
and mud has left me feeling unsettled since I saw it. Next time I see
the message *viewer discretion is advised*, I would definitely think
twice before viewing them.
When the news went viral yesterday, it
was reported that they were accused of stealing phones and laptops and
were beaten to death. However, other accounts of the incident have
emerged.
Some people claimed the students were
actually cultists who terrorized the community and at the time they were
caught, they had dangerous weapons on them.
On Twitter, someone using the handle
@Penny_sugababe who says she stays in Port Harcourt recounted her view
of the incident. Although a search for her original tweets shows that
her account has either been deleted or suspended (or probably it was
just my internet connection), her tweets were retweeted several times.
She started by saying “Gosh! So because
the criminals that were killed in PH today were cute, people are calling
it injustice…Smh… Nigerians sha”
Then she continued with more tweets which have been trending on Twitter
She concluded with more tweets saying “They chose a wrong path and they knew the end…. Did they expect an angry mob to pat dem on dia backs and give them ice-cream? Oh please”
“Good night folks, pray for your loved ones, never to join a wrong crowd or be misguided. The fate of those boys…. It is well.”
She received quite a bashing for her tweets anyway. But I came across a similar witness account on a site called Date360. This was reportedly written by a student:
The Students
involved are Cultists, They went to attack someone, they were about 5 in
number, so on their way out, A girl saw them and screamed, these
alerted people and they attacked them.. One of them escaped and the
remaining 4 were caught with Weapons and beaten by a man , Hitting them
Mercilessly and bringing them to a slow and painful death.. The man
later Got Fuel and poured it in their mouth and lit it., Burning one
student!, The man was stopped with the arrival of the police so he
couldn’t burn the rest, they were later taken to the mortuary where the
families of the deceased Came to claim the corpse…
More reports have claimed that the boys
were killed by one man. While looking at the pictures, I noticed one
particular man holding an insanely big stick over a boy’s head who was
already weak, bloody and pleading for his life. I saw the man in another
picture putting a tyre across another boy’s neck.
I hope this helps the police in their
investigations. The governor of Rivers state, Rotimi Amaechi has
reportedly ordered the immediate arrest of the killers of the students.
What baffles me is that this act was
carried out in broad day light and in the midst of so many people. Were
the boys’ sins so grievous that no one could stop the men who were
beating them up?
I think not just the state governor, but
the President has to intervene in this case. Despite what they might
have done, this sort of jungle justice, beating young men to death on
the streets in the midst of everyone including children just doesn’t
sound right.
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