Students beat up security guards, burn down Rector’s office in Rivers State Polytechnic

There was confusion in the Rivers State Polytechnic in Bori, Khana Local Government Area, on Thursday when students beat up private security guards attached to the institution and razed down the rector’s office.

Trouble had reportedly started on Wednesday while members of the National Association of Akwa Ibom State Students in RIVPOLY prepared to elect new executives for the union.
It was gathered that the security guards had, for an undisclosed reason, decided to interrogate one of the members of the association, identified as Effiong, while the election was ongoing.

The development, according to sources, did not go down well with Effiong, even as the chief security officer of the institution raced to the scene when some of the students began to threaten to make trouble.

Effiong’s crime was not disclosed but it was learnt that he was beaten up by a group of policemen before he was taken away in a Hilux van.

The situation worsened when word went round that Effiong had died in police custody. That prompted students and members of the association to spoil for war on Thursday.

While security personnel on duty assured the angry students that Effiong was not dead, the situation became uncontrollable as the students expressed their annoyance over the ill treatment of their brother.

Punch reports that as the students began to protest and called for Effiong’s immediate release, the private security personnel attached the polytechnic appealed to them for calm, promising that their colleague would soon be released.

But the students descended on the chief security officer of the institution and other security personnel while a group of persons reportedly seized the opportunity to loot the ICT Centre of the school and set the office of the Rector and Bursar ablaze.

It took the intervention of policemen from Bori Area Command and operatives of the Joint Task Force, who came some minutes later, for the riotous students to leave the scene.

The State Police Commissioner, Mr. Dan Bature, who confirmed the incident, explained that some students had a disagreement with the chief security officer of the institution as a result of the arrest and detention of their colleague.