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The management of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi has shut down the school for one week following a protest by students of the institution on Monday over the alleged killing of one of its student, Joseph Agabaidu, a 500 level student of the geology department of the faculty of science.
The Director, Information and Public Relations, ATBU Bauchi, Mr Zailani Bappah, made this known to journalists during a press briefing in Bauchi.
He confirmed the death of the student and said the alleged stabbing of late Agabaidu by unknown hoodlums in an attempt to snatch away his phone did not happen on campus but outside the school premises and it is the duty of the police to investigate the matter.
“There was the allegation of the murder of one of our student which happened on Saturday night and it was reported to the school security on Sunday. This murder allegation did not happen inside our university campus. The record we have of such a student is that he lives outside the university campus despite that he is a final year student.
Mr Zailani said the university security has reported the matter to the police for proper investigation.
“Actually, if something happens on our campus, certainly, we have to take big the responsibility of dealing with it squarely.
however, if it doesn’t happen on the campus, we have nothing to do, less to do with this issue other than the police in charge of the area where this thing happened, and the university management cannot in anyway address this issue without a proper police report on the allegation which is yet to come to the university from the police.
“However, agitated students this morning decided to take matters into their hands, some of the students decided to start demonstration early this morning. It is the duty of the security of the university to ensure law and order. This issue has been reported to the police and must be left in the hands of police to investigate and address it squarely.”
He maintained that the decision to close down the school was as a result of the student’s actions who are trying to create disorder within the university community despite the involvement of the police.
He explained that the school security and police tried to douse the protest from escalating.
“It is unfortunate that after succeeding in trying to douse the situation inside the university, there was also some group of students who decided not to surrender this issue to the police and they are agitating leading to the level of where they want to create disorder within the university community and they even went to the extent of not recognizing the officials of the university who were there to calm them down.
“This has led to a decision by the management to close down the university. the university will be closed down from today up to a period of one week and students have already been directed vacate all campuses of the university immediately.”
The university management said any undergraduate student found on the campus will face the law.
Meanwhile, the police are yet to react to the incident. (Channels)
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