On Friday, 5 October 2012, Tekena Elkanah, Ugonna Obuzor, Lloyd Michaal and Chidiaka Biringa, all students of University of Port Harcourt, woke up and full of life. Being in their late teens and early twenties, they obviously did not know the Nigeria of peace, unity and progress that some of us the older ones grew up in.
However, the four young men found themselves in Aluu and never came back to school alive. Those of you who aren't faint-hearted must have watched the gruesome video of the barbaric killings and seen the pictures making the rounds in the social network. The story we hear from the village and their supporters is that the boys were stealers of a laptop and phones. The excuse for their gruesome murder is that the village of Aluu has suffered from spates of armed-robberies which have had people on edge. Thus, once the students were proclaimed thieves, the village consensus was to publicly execute them in the most gruesome manner after taking them to their traditional ruler.
Let's pause here and think. Of course, the claim that the students were criminals has been adequately pooh-poohed. But let's assume the village story is true and that these were indeed robbers. They have been caught, they were not armed and even if they were, they have been stripped and rendered powerless. So, why did they not hand them over to the Police? If the community has been a victim of spates of robberies as they claim, would it not be in their interest to hand over those they have caught to the police, so they can extract information about others still at large? What type of evil anger would rule the minds of people who sacrifice the credibility and innocence of a whole community by openly killing four young men in broad daylight in the village in the presence of women and children and other members of the community? Do these people have sons and brothers and relations who could have been in the boys' shoes? What contrary spirit came over those characters busy bludgeoning young, able-bodied persons with massive trunks and stones and then collaring them with tyres, dousing them with petrol and torching them? What type of minds were those pushing the battered, beaten fellow rolling away from the fire back into the fire? What type of citizens are we breeding in Aluu?
We may all rail against the loss of values and the scant regard we give to human life in Nigeria. But what we have witnessed in Aluu is a dangerous precedent that must not be allowed to take root.
We must not allow those behind this to go unpunished, because that will endanger the lives of thousands of students living in host communities where and near their universities and tertiary institutions nationwide. We cannot let the young children and women of Aluu who witnessed these killings believe that members of their community with such evil minds, murderers, can go scot-free because this is Nigeria. University students must never be victims of the loss of moral focus and state incapacity to protect citizens. We are calling on you to exercise citizens' action! Nigerian students of every university and every tertiary institution must rise in protest against this evil! They must move into the community and join hands with well-wishers to protest the death of these young men in the hands of the Aluu community. They must call on the Rivers State Police Command, Governor Rotimi Amechi, and the Rivers State Executive Council, the State House of Assembly, President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Assembly and the security services nationwide to rise up to the occasion and bring justice to those responsible for the gruesome murder of the Aluu4. They should not rest until this is done!
University students and young people everywhere, including concerned parents must join the movement to get justice for Aluu4. The people must not allow themselves to be victims of murderers and merchants of evil! Enough is enough!
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