Uniport Killings: Police arrest Traditional Ruler & 12 others over barbaric killing of 4 Uniport students

Moved by the bestial and barbaric manner in which 4 students of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) were hacked to death by some natives over the weekend, the men of the Rivers State Police Command Sunday embarked on a mass arrest of people in Omuokiri Community, Aluu, where the killing took place.

It was gathered that among those arrested was the traditional ruler of Omuokiri village of Aluu, Alhaji Hassan Welewa.

The arrests came just as the Rivers State Government and other stakeholders have expressed outrage over the mindless killing. The four male undergraduate students were killed last Friday by a mob in a community adjoining the university for alleged armed robbery.


Another version had it that the students were cult members who had gone on a failed ‘hit.’

The incident attracted wild outrage given how the students were crudely debased, beaten, and eventually hacked to death by the villagers, many of whom gleefully posted the video clips of the beating and killing on the internet.

The state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, while speaking on a radio programme monitored in Port Harcourt yesterday, confirmed the arrest of the traditional ruler and others suspected to be involved in the murder.

She said the state Governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, found the incident unacceptable and reprehensible. She said the government was alarmed at the gruesome killings and had ordered a full-scale investigation into the incident.

“This crime will not go unpunished,” she said, adding that the traditional ruler and other suspects had been arrested by the police for interrogation.