REPORTING: MURDER, ANARCHY AND MAYHEM ON FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC UNWANA CAMPUS – A CLOSE SHAVE WITH DEATH.

It was like any other beautiful and peaceful first working day of the week, Tuesday 15 September 2008, in particular. Precisely 8:30 am when I finally saw myself out of the male hostel facility for my lectures MTH 312, already in progress at the Engineering hall C and D. I decided to make a brief stop-over to one of the errand photographers, littered over the campus, Fabulous Films, in particular, to re-book for a rewash of some pictures he had earlier taken on me and friends recently during a Sent-Off party of our graduating colleagues over the weekend. It was then, that I realized that I hadn’t the money on me to complete the order. So I zoomed off straight for the lecture hall.

Though I was behind the lecture time, a look on the faces of my colleagues indicates fatigues and disenchantment. “Why would a lecturer be coming to class and at the same time be introducing new topics when according the released time-table, the examination are to commence in less than three weeks time?” bemoaned some students. “Maybe these new areas are covered in his examination questions.” Came the frank remarks of others. Forty nine minuets later, and at the tail end of the lecture, I quietly left for the ATM machine operated by one of the two banks in the campus, Fidelity Bank.

A five minuets walk saw me close to the bank, lying adjacent to the ICT centre. I could see a queue of about 15 persons in a disorderly manner hanging around the ATM. I prayed my financial institutions’ services would be available on the network as I have been cash-strapped for two days now due to network none-availability. Another five to fifteen minuets went by before I was able to withdraw my funds from the ATM. Then, the whole scenario began to unfold.

All eyes were turned towards the main road, when a woman, a teenage boy carrying a big hoe across his shoulders, and a crying little boy passed-by, moving on home. Then, we all saw equally some group of young men wielding cutlasses and machetes and riding indiscriminately on motorbikes. Some were seen on foot heading into the academic and lecture blocks. There was an air of confusion and uncertainty as to the meaning of all these. Then someone broke the news − a woman had been found in a farm butchered in cold blood within the campus by an unknown assailant. Her child been the one we had earlier seen been lead home was left behind crying by the side of the dead woman.

The gravity of the whole event was not really felt until some minuets latter when it was alleged that students were been attacked and brutally macheted by the angry youths of the host community. Too many students in quite oblivion of what was going were equally attacked in their lecture halls with their lectures in session. In a matter of minuets that drove into tensed and confused hours of terror, a total anarchy and mayhem reigned. The two banks, Fidelity and First Bank, closed their doors to their customers. Most student, lecturers and non-academic staffs, as well as ordinary business outfits caught in the mayhem took to flight in helter-skelter for their dear lives. A good number of them reportedly ran to the male and female hostels for safety − a place that was latter surrounded and further terrorized by the angry youths in hot pursuit armed with cutlasses, machetes and many dangerous-looking weapons.

A good number of us trapped inside the ICT facility, so to say, though browsing the internet felt safe for the time been, the air was filled with tension and fears of the direction and to their fates as matters worsens. Desperate phone calls and received calls kept the scenes busy with friends and loved ones trying to make contacts and appraisals of the situation on the ground. However, right inside me, an unusual excitement was brewing up. I was looking forward to a taste of the action − I would really want to witness the mayhem proper than been told of what actually took place. Atleast, I would love to catch a glimpse, if not every action with the eye of my Nokia 6230i video-camera phone. Beware in your mind; I am a freelance journalist/writer/reporter. I needed something of the action to add to my video collections that could be found on www.youtube.com/vasnate and www.myvidoealbum.blogspot.com as well as www.gather.com/vasnate  e.t.c

The two consecutive power cuts and beaucratic delays by the staffs of the ICT centre to restore power with their alternate power supply for more than 15 minuets, coupled with the attendant heat inside the centre and the boredom, forced some of the students to storm the outside of the building within the locked complex to take a peep. We needed something else to occupy our preoccupied feelings of uncertainty.

Everything happened quite suddenly. I had started to video the scene as cautiously as I could through the slits of the iron-gate of the complex when I was caught in the act. Some of the angry youths, realizing the possible implications of my actions got irate and fired missiles of stones at the gate. We all ran inside the complex for cover − I had brought the war home to the ICT centre. In a matter of minuets, a huge angry crowd had gathered outside the locked gate of the complex, wielding machetes and cutlasses demanding for the video camera phone and the head of the video-man in red polo; that was me. Even as much as the war songs and chants for my head and my phone were brewing outside the complex, I was calm and calculative in contrast to some of my fellow colleagues. I knew I was to be the sacrificial lamb to save the lives of both the rest of the frightened students, the ICT personnel and the ICT complex facility, in the case of attacks. 

Boldly, I came out to meet my would-be assailants who by this time were beginning to scale the fencing parameters of the facility to forcefully fish me out. After confiscating my camera phone, and running down my jeans for further incriminating items, one of the youths, I presume a close relation to the murdered women vowed to take my life in recompense for the murder of the woman. I was accused for the murder of the woman in particular. With my hands above my head and still wearing that confident and calm deportment, I pleaded for my life to appease the crowds. Two other bold students were already on their knees pleading on my behalf even before I could comply with their demand to knee down. I was impressed by that display of concern and comradeship. In all my life, no body have ever pleaded for my life before, though I have never been in this kind of situation before, instead I had always been the one fighting for others. My presence gives people the confidence from the grip of fear. To be honest, I wasn’t scared that I was going to be dead in a matter of moments. However, something else was ringing a bell in my head. I was beginning to imagine things from another angle. I was imaging some exciting thoughts, yes some silly thoughts if that sooths your impressions. I had wished that someone with that fearless, adventurous and curious mindset could have taken the opportunity to video the whole scene!

Suddenly, the crowds were divided as I had expected. Some were of the view that having confiscated my phone, I should be left alone. Others, though in the minority wanted to deal further with me. I was roughly pushed and slapped at the back of my neck. A machete was slapped both on my head and back simultaneously. The action was but over! The angry crowds reluctantly and grudgingly began to disperse. This was the action I was looking forward to; unfortunately, I went without witnessing it with my camera phone, at least to tease-up this report.

My only regrets were my inability to retrieve my sim card and the memory card where some recent events that took place on the campus were recorded. These videos had not been uploaded to the sites mentioned above. Except that, everything was but fun and a thrilling experience. It had emboldened me in this self-chosen hobby as a freelance journalist/writer/reporter. I was just doing my job. It is my job.

All this, brings to the fore the appalling insecurity on the campus. One would have imagined a situation of this nature where every student’s security should have been a paramount interest of the administration and the relevant authorities as well as the security personnels such as the police. That the youths of the host community could invade and rape the innocent academic environs and interrupt with impunity the peaceful lives of the student community attacking them with cutlasses and machetes in broad daylight with no one among the security forces and their relevant agencies coming to their rescues, is totally unacceptable. It took hours before sufficient presence of the police men were felt on the campus to restore a sense of security. Who knows how many students were macheted and brutalized by these hoodlums in these IT age of the century. Even before this ugly incident took place, many students have became constant victims of rapes, armed robberies and all sorts of embarrassing assault on the campus by some hoodlums in the community and alike. Equally there’s this certain fear of a reprisal attacks by the students who might feel intimidated by the actions of the youths just to prove a point.

On the parts of the academic authorities, so far, no official response or statement has been made. It was gathered that the Rector and the Deputy Rector were not available when the incident took place. Where do we go from here?