IT was a tragic day in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Tuesday when people suspected to be cultists unleashed mayhem on the Choba Park campus of the University of Port Harcourt, killing a lecturer, two students, a woman passerby and others.


A professor of the university whose name was not immediately known was also hit by the gunmen’s bullets and is now lying critically ill at an undisclosed hospital.


It was also a tragic day on Tuesday in Lagos as a car was crushed by the state government-operated Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), leading to the death of the driver while three others were reportedly injured.


In the Port Harcourt incident, Dr. Iknezam Ozum, a lecturer in the Faculty of Education, two students, a middle-aged woman and others died while the professor sustained serious injuries.


However, in a swift reaction, men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) in the state, also known as Operation Flush Out 3, pursued the cultists and killed two of them while another was arrested at Mbodo village in Aluu near the campus.


Eyewitnesses said the gunmen came on three motorbikes, armed with AK-47 rifles and immediately headed to the security post of the school and later into the office of the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the institution, one Mr. Amadi.


It was further gathered that the CSO, who was shot at, and some of his subordinates, managed to escape through the back door, but the gunmen shot the lecturer who was with the CSO at that time.


Apparently angry that they missed their target, the cultists began shooting in all directions, which resulted in the death of three others from stray bullets, while several other students and a security official sustained gunshot injuries.


Following a frantic call, members of the JTF responded swiftly and tracked three of the gunmen, killing two in the process. Two others reportedly escaped.


“We chased them on their bikes to inside Aluu community. After some time, they abandoned their bikes and went into the bush, but we followed them, and eventually caught three of them, we are still looking for the others,” a source in the JTF said.


The panic that gripped the entire university community following the incident lessened when the suspects were paraded before students and the Vice Chancellor, Professor Don Baridam, before they were taken away in police vehicles.


When the Nigerian Tribune visited the scene of the incident, students were seen in groups discussing, while security has been beefed up in all the campuses of the institution.


Efforts to get detailed information from the spokesman of the JTF, Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, were unsuccessful as he did not pick his phone when called on Tuesday evening.


The Police Public Relations Officer of the Rivers State Police Command, Mrs. Rita Inoma-Abbey (DSP), told the Nigerian Tribune that the incident happened at about 9.00 a.m. when suspected cultists, numbering eight, stormed the campus and went straight for Amadi.


She added that after they were unable to get Amadi, they went for the lecturer and after making sure he was dead, they came to the open and started raining bullets in all directions. In the process, a nursing mother was hit and died instantly while two security men were also hit.

She said it was the men of the state's police command who went after the hoodlums, killed two of them in a firefight and arrested a third one, who, she said was already helping the command with useful information about his gang's operations.


She said three motorbikes and five AK-47 magazines were some of the items recovered from the suspects, adding that those injured had been taken to the hospital for treatment.


The spokesman of the university, Dr. William Wodi, was not available for comments on the development as he did not pick any of the calls put across to him.


As at the time of filing this report, it was reliably gathered that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was holding a meeting where, according to sources, a decision would be taken on steps to take to curb the new trend campus cultism was assuming in the institution.


In Lagos, one person was killed in an early morning accident, involving three vehicles on Eko Bridge in Costain area.


The vehicles were a Piccanto Kia car registered BQ 842 KSF, a luxury bus in the fleet of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and a Mitsubishi bus with registration number DS 928 LSR.


The driver and sole occupant of the Kia car was killed instantly and the car had to be broken apart by two trucks to remove his body from the wreckage.


According to eyewitnesses, the Mitsubishi bus, going to Lagos Island, lost control, crossed the median and crashed into the car heading towards the Mainland.


The BRT bus, which was behind the car, hit it a little from behind, the witnesses explained.


The BRT bus was later set on fire by an irate mob who mistakenly suspected that it was the cause of the accident.


Confirming the incident, the police Area Commander in charge of Area “C”, Mr. Olufemi Adenaike, told NAN that the body of the dead had been deposited in the morgue.


Adenaike added that three victims were rushed to hospital with varying degrees of injuries.


He disclosed that 13 suspects were arrested in connection with the burning of the BRT bus.


Mr. Frank Mba, the Police Public Relations Officer for Lagos State, told NAN that investigation into the accident had commenced.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/04062008/news/news1.html

The BRT bus was later set on fire by an irate mob who mistakenly suspected that it was the cause of the acciden

Naija and instant jungle justice. na waoo

and someone said this would apply if only we had gun laws like that in the US. jeeezzzz

if we could be this brutal without guns, heaven knows what we can do if we are allowed to own guns legally

Madness,people are all boiled up.It is just the beginning,pin a man to the wall,

Some people are not happy with the operation of the BRT as they have seen it as a way of blocking the means of living. These set of people most especially the commercial bus drivers and conductors will destroy these BRT buses at any available excuse.

Those arrested should be properly punished if found guilty next time, they will learn their lessons.

May God grant the deceased eternal rest and heal the injured.

@abdurrazaq i agree with that, that is why law enforcement is so important. All this toutish behaviour will continue on every level and fabric if the law is not enforced. Why on earth do we have a constituion if its values are not enforced? We might as well have no constitution and be a lawless land because Nigeria is not far from it anyway. Leaders will steal as they please and abuse office and they are celebrated and walk free while a lot of graduates who have not even seen trial are in jail for the most trivial of reasons. Some were not even given reasons and they are rotting in jail. It is all upside down. Unfortunately the people who are meant to be enforcing the law are also part of the problem. The Law must be enforced because Nigeria it seems might need to be flogged into common sense.