Rioting Amnesty Student at Novena interrupts academic program

(Warning +18) Novena University closed indefinitely after student rioted over the death of a colleague.

Novena University closed indefinitely after student rioted over the death of a colleague; Miss Faith Kelechi Ojum. The deceased student is a 300 Level undergraduate of the Public and Community Health Department who lost her life due to an accident on her way to withdraw money from an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) almost 2 kilometres from her campus. The incident occurred along the Obiaruku-Amai road involving the tricycle she was in and a truck conveying bamboo sticks. She was struck in the neck by one of the bamboo sticks.

Kelechi and the damaged properties of Skye Bank at Novene University Ogume, Delta State. I tried my best to edit the picture so it won’t be too graphic or explicit. May God grant her access into Heaven and may He grant her family the fortitude to bear the lost.

May be out of panic or the secret nature of the school (who often creates an illusion of having a School of Medicine and Surgery), The eyewitness to the collision were ill-advised to rushed her to the Novena University Medical Centre at the Amai Campus (which doesn’t have an active Emergency Room like in most towns). Having realised their error in judgement, they took her from Amai to the General Hospital in Obiaruku which was almost 30 minutes away. It is almost miraculous that she didn’t bleed to death and arrived at the Obiaruku General Hospital alive, where Kelechi eventually died. She was about to be transferred yet to another Hospital after the doctor on duty recommended she should be taken to Delta State University Teaching Hospital due to the complexity of her injury.

Based on what a lecturer told a reporter of Punch newspaper; the “angry” student went on a rampage the following day after hearing of the death of Kelechi. However, what he didn’t tell the reporter was that they initially only barricade the school gate in protest (preventing lecturers from entering until the school addressed what they describe as a preventable and unnecessary death). Instead of the school authorities showing empathy, they opted to call external police which enraged the protesting student and things soon escalated into a full blown riot resulting in part of the Skye Bank (within the campus) and security office being vandalised.

 The student alleged that the only Bank in the school had not opened since the resumption of this semester and the ATM were not reliable so they often have to travel to Abraka or Obiaruku to make use of an ATM. They said that the school refused to resolve the issue despite the fact that there were numerous cases of minor bike accidents involving student traveling between the narrow Obirauku-Amai Road (where they are not only prone to accident, but also police harassment and last year, a final-year student was violently murder on that same road in broad-daylight).

An Internal Memo was posted on the schools noticeboard on Wednesday May 2, 2018 asking all students of the institution to vacate the school premises within 48 hours. It was noticeably signed by the infamous Professor I. O Okoro and as usual; the message lacked empathy as the only reason sighted for the closure of the school was the vandalism of school properties by students. Most of the protesting students were allegedly admitted under the federal government's Niger-Delta Presidential Amnesty Program.

Protest before the University Management ordered the police to intimidate the students