Abia State University Uturu (ABSU), will go down in history of universities across the world as one of the tertiary institutions where some students learn how to kill their fellow students instead of reading their books to acquire degrees and diplomas, and subsequently contribute to national development and human progress.
On March 13, 2016, the university community woke up to the gory sight of two severed human heads which were kept on the lawns within the precincts of the university gate.
The human heads were those of two students of the university who were gruesomely killed on March 12, 2016, by suspected cultists. After killing them and severing their heads, the assailants reportedly put their heads on spikes and danced round the lawn before taking to their heels.
Meanwhile, the Abia State Police Command has spread its dragnet to arrest the perpetrators of this heinous act. According to the command’s spokesman, Mr Ezekiel Onyeke Udeviotu, the matter has been given accelerated investigation, adding that the Commissioner of Police, Joshak Habila, has given men of the command a marching order to arrest the perpetrators of the dastardly act.
The barbaric act has since attracted condemnation and reactions especially as the bloody act was committed by students whose major reason for going to an institution of higher learning is to be certified worthy in character and learning.
The two human heads were identified as those of Nwigbo Chukwuebuka, a 300 level student of Estate Management, and Samuel Ethelbert, also a 300 level, Political Science student.
The deceased were alleged to be victims of reprisal cult attacks. According to reports, the duo were members of “Mafia” cult group operating in the university whose colleagues last month allegedly killed one Collins Agwu, leader of a rival cult group known as ‘Burkina Faso.’
The gruesome killing of Agwu, was said to have taken place within the university’s gate; a spot where the good, bad and the ugly usually take place. The late cult leader was said to have been buried in his village in Arochukwu, Abia State on the same day some members of ‘Burkina Faso’ cult group allegedly killed Chukwuebuka and Ethelbert, and subsequently cut off their heads.
Meanwhile, the authorities of ABSU said they will collaborate with major stakeholders, including the state government, host community and security agencies, to check cultism in the institution.
ABSU Vice Chancellor, Prof. Uchenna Ikonne, last Thursday told newsmen that the gruesome murder of two undergraduates of the university on March 12, 2016, by suspected rival cult members, was condemnable, adding that the dastardly act, which jolted the university community, took place at a private hostel, called Chi-Doo Lodge, located near a forest on Afikpo-Uturu Road, about four kilometres away from the university.