A sister of one of the four University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT)
students brutally murdered last Friday in Umuokiri village, Aluu, Rivers
State, has narrated how her younger brother and his friends were
lynched.
Miss Ibisobia Elkanah, elder sister of Tekena Friday Elkanah (both pictured above), revealed
yesterday that policemen visited the scene where the students were burnt
to death after they were severely injured and that one of the law
enforcement agents told the perpetrators of the dastardly act “to burn
them alive”
Can you guys believe this? Policemen were there? I think all the
policemen at the scene of this brutal killing should be dismissed and
charged to court. How could they have allowed this happen? Please
continue...
The murdered students, Chiadika Lordson, Ugonna Kelechi Obusor, Mike
Lloyd Toku, and Tekena Elkanah, all part two students, were murdered in
cold blood over alleged theft of a laptop computer and a blackberry
phone. Ibisobia, a part-time final year student of Marketing, at the
same university who witnessed the incident, said on that fateful day, at
about 7.30 am, she was at the house of her girl friend in the community
when she heard people shouting outside. “I dashed out and beckoned on
my friend to come since she lived in the area.
The thing attracted much noise and attention. I went there but did not
actually see or recognize any of them, due to the crowd. “I heard when
people were saying the people they (vigilance group) caught were
strangers; that they want to burn them.
They said they were asking them questions, so that they could know their
senders.” She said after that, she went back to her friend’s house, but
could not stay there. “I went back again. I went through the bush path
so that I could see them properly. I started jumping to see if I could
see them. I jumped again but saw nothing. I jumped the second time and I
saw Tekena. Tekena happened to be my brother. “I told myself that I was
not seeing well, this thing is a lie. I jumped the third time, I saw
Lloyd (one of the victims). So, I started shouting.
From what I gathered, the first time I came, they said they were not
known; that they were strangers. As I identified them, I started
shouting. Ibisobia said she continued shouting that Tekena was her
brother, saying that he came to her on Thursday in school and she gave
him his school fees. “I told them that somebody should allow me to ask
him what happened and what he came to do. He would confide in me. He was
wailing and in a pool of blood.”
“Tekena has been my younger brother for many years. I saw them as they
lay in the water naked with leaves covering their nakedness.” His elder
sister said she struggled and entered the crowd. Somebody shouted “Who
is that? What is she doing inside?” “People were pushing me and I
started crying. He is my brother! He is not a thief! Somebody behind me
said O’girl run for your life.
About two persons turned and asked, are you sure he is your brother, and
said may be I was the person that sent him to go and steal.” Ibisobia
replied them that how could she send him, that she did not look as such.
‘They said I should run for my life that I would be the next one, fifth
person.” The young lady lamented that before she could get to her
friend’s room to call her family members, she learnt that the mob had
taken them to the burrow pit. “So, I went there again.
I called my family and they started coming. The police van came, went
into the mob and they were talking to them (youths). The people kept
quiet as police were making statements. “I heard them laughing. You
know, they were happy. They kept quiet again. Police talked and they
laughed again. The next was for me to see three policemen coming out of
the mob, boarded their van. And, one of the said “burn them alive”. “I
must confess, I was gripped with fear.
I had the intention to talk to the man that said they should be burnt
alive. As soon as they (police) drove off, I saw the flames. I was
thinking they burnt them after they had killed them. Later, I discovered
that they were burnt while they were alive.
Source: Daily Sun