Bauchi State Police Command has disclosed that the slain 500-level student at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) was stabbed while trying to retrieve his girlfriend’s handbag from some assailants.
Daily Trust had reported that hundreds of students on Monday held a peaceful demonstration to protest the killing of a 500-level student, who was stabbed to death by suspected robbers.
Subsequently, the protest degenerated into breakdown of law and order, a situation that compelled the management of ATBU to close down the institution for a period of one week.
The police in a statement signed by its Public Relations Officer SP Ahmed Wakil, said, “On 02/12/2023 some unknown persons, numbers not ascertained, snatched a handbag containing a mobile phone belonging to a lady, one Philomena Ahobee, 28 years, a student at Abubakar Tatari Polytechnic (ATAP), Bauchi.
“As a result of which her boyfriend Agbaidu Joseph, 28 years, of Anguwan Ngas who is a student at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi, tried to help her to retrieve the handbag containing the phone. The assailant stabbed him on the left-side of his chest with a sharp knife. The victim was rushed to Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH) Bauchi for treatment but he was certified dead while on admission by a medical doctor.”
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Wakil said that the Commissioner of Police Bauchi State Command, CP Auwal Musa Mohammed, received in audience the leadership of two students bodies (NUBAS and SUG) in his office at the state command headquarters.
While addressing the CP, the leadership of the students union kicked against the violent protest by some students and applauded the CP for his swift response that nipped it in the bud.
The students leaders presented a letter of request to the Commissioner of Police soliciting more security presence around their communities.
While accepting the letter, the CP assured them of the deployment of the intelligence and operational asset of the command to the affected areas. He also ordered the posting of more personnel and patrol vans for constant visibility patrol in the area.
The CP lamented that it was wrong for the students to have taken laws into their own hands in a matter that only the higher institutions and other relevant stakeholders can adjudicate, thereby creating a vacuum for unscrupulous persons to highjack the protest and turn it into a violent one leading to a confrontation with the school authority.
He further encouraged residents of the state to remain law-abiding, be vigilant, and promptly report suspected criminals and their activities to the police.
He said efforts were being intensified to apprehend the culprits that perpetrated the dastardly act, adding that justice would be served.
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