Five arrested over UNICAL violence

University of Calabar main gate entrance

Five students of the University of Calabar, Cross River State have been arrested in connection with Saturday’s violent demonstration that led to the closure of the institution.

The Police Public Relations Officer of the state police command, Mr. Etim Dickson, who made this known, said the students were arrested on the day of the incident.

Three people were killed and property worth several millions of naira destroyed in the violence that Governor Liyel Imoke and the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. James Epoke, described on Sunday as “unprecedented and unfortunate.”

Imoke, who inspected the level of damage done in the university, said, “The destruction is quite extensive and it is across the campus. It is most unfortunate, it is unprecedented that we have this kind of wanton destruction of an institution, it is really unfortunate.”

He was happy that security agencies had been able to restore peace in the university and explained that the decision to shut the institution was to allow calm to be restored.

Epoke, who took the governor round the school, said UNICAL authorities were still at a loss to understand why the incident happened.

“It is strange because we cannot say that there was anything bad the authorities did that should warrant this type of reaction,” he said.

Admitting that students had a right to disagree with the authorities, the VC lamented that there no basis for the violence.

“Students may disagree on one thing or the other but if that disagreement is brought in the way of normal demonstration, the administration would have to look at it, but for this wanton destruction, it does not seem that anything went wrong; they just wanted to destroy the place,” he said.

Epoke also dismissed the allegation that the protest was caused by a robbery attack that led to the death of two students.

He said, “Even in the secondary school, it is difficult for a robber to enter the boys’ dormitory and steal, how much more a university with over 5, 000 students.”

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