A final year Engineering student of Madonna University, Akpugo campus, Enugu, Stanley Okoye, has narrated how he and his friend, Lord Galim, were allegedly assaulted, locked in a vehicle boot and abducted by the institution’s Dean, Student Affairs, Rev. Fr. Isaac Jinga, and the Chief Security Officer, Ogbonna Oke.
Okoye alleged that he was beaten so badly that he suffered a spinal injury and sustained cuts on his face and all over his body while his friend had a fractured upper and lower jaws, internal and external ear injuries, torn lips, bloodied eyes and abdominal and chest pains.
After their ordeal, the two students were allegedly taken secretly to the Madonna University Teaching Hospital, Elele, Rivers State for surgeries by their torturers, who seized their phones to prevent them
from communicating with their families.
For the criminal attack on the two students, Jinga and Oke were arraigned by the police at an Nkanu West Magistrate Court, Enugu on July 14, 2015 on a two-count charge of felony, causing grievous bodily harm with intent to maim, and disfigure their victims.
Okoye’s parents had also taken the matter further by instituting a N1bn suit against the university authorities at the Federal High Court, Enugu, for the criminal assault on their son and his friend.
Trouble started for Okoye and Galim on February 3, when he was roughly woken up from sleep around 12am by Jinga, who was accompanied by three hall representatives, and an armed soldier.
Okoye explained that Jinga demanded for Galim, who stayed in another room in the hostel. The men, he said, left and returned with Galim and asked Okoye to come with them.
He said, “We were taken to the hostel entrance and asked to board the Dean’s Lexus jeep and we were taken to the administrative block. Jinga then called the CSO and we were asked to lie down on the rough ground; Jinga and the CSO started beating us with planks, iron and other objects.
“We asked why they were beating us and they said the CSO was attacked outside the campus and they said they suspected us of having a hand in it. They continued beating us for a long time, we attempted to run away, but the Dean asked the soldier to shoot us and when we saw him cocking his gun, we stopped,” Okoye narrated.
The 23-year-old further explained that after being beaten for a long time, Jinga and Ogbonna allegedly bundled him and his friend in the boots of a Toyota 4Runner SUV and a Lexus SUV and took them to Akpugo Police Station, but they were rejected by policemen, who insisted that they should be taken to a hospital for treatment.
Rather than take them to a hospital, Okoye said their abductors put them back in the vehicle boots and drove them back to the campus clinic, where their faces were stitched.
“They locked us in a room and kept a guard outside the door. They seized our phones and we were there from February 4th to 5th. The reverend father threatened that he would kill us and nothing would happen. I found a sheet of paper, wrote my dad and sister’s numbers and threw it out, somebody picked it and informed my dad about my ordeal,” he recalled.
The young man stated that his dad was shocked when he was brought to see him at the school security post on February 5. Two policemen attached to the school reportedly destroyed his father’s camera when he was trying to take photographs of his son.
Okoye further narrated that when his dad left, the school management took him and Galim to the Madonna Teaching Hospital, when they noticed that he was coughing out blood due to internal injuries.
He said, “We were driven to the teaching hospital on the night of February 5 where we underwent surgeries. We spent seven weeks there, but the school management did not inform our parents and when my father heard that we were in Port Harcourt, he was mad.
“They later discharged us when my father came there with soldiers. Till now, I still have pains in my spine where I was hit with an iron rod.
Jinga did not respond to several calls to his phone as well as a text message. Ogbonna refused to comment, saying questions should be directed to the school management.
The Enugu Police Public Relations Officer, Ebere Amarizu, did not respond to several calls and the text message sent to him.
The Media Consultant to the university, Emeka Okpala, declined to comment, saying the case is in court. “I can’t comment on the case because it is in court already, but by the time I send you e-mails on the activities of those boys, you would know that they are very bad,” he said over the phone.
Meanwhile, the Madonna University Alumni Association has condemned the inhumane treatment of the two undergraduates.
The association said such violence should have no place in the university and the society at large.
The association in a statement signed by a spokesperson, Esharegharan Elvis, sympathised with the students and their families while also calling on the management of Madonna University to act swiftly to ensure a peaceful resolution of the case.
It said, “We also call on the university management to open a board of inquiry to investigate this concern and other pre-existing concerns with regards to human rights of the students of the university.
“A dedicated channel (e-mail and helpline) shall be set up to this effect and we welcome inputs from all current and past students of this great institution. The alumni will continue to project a positive image of our fellow graduates and we are committed to intensifying efforts to create a better environment for the undergraduates.
“We will continue to fight for the students’ rights as steps are being taken to re-energise and re-strengthen our Alumni desk to keep an eye on any such cases
“The high-handedness and excessive use of power by security officials in the school premises against students should be curtailed while decency should be applied in all dealings with students.”
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