Over 100 C’River varsity students protest death of colleagues

Students of the Cross River University of Technology (CRUTEC) on Tuesday stormed the Governor’s office in Calabar, protesting the death of their colleagues who allegedly died of electrocution. The students, who came in their hundreds, were however stopped from gaining access inside the premises, even as the governor was not in the office as at the time to receive them.

Led by one Prince Harmony, who told Daily Times that he was a 100 level student of the institution, said one of their colleagues, Daniel Asuquo of the Department of Architecture, was among the two students who died during the electrocution.

“We are here to protest the constant loss of lives in Calabar due to frequent electrocution. In the last one in April, we lost some of our students and now, we have lost an 18 year old student whose prospects have been cut short,” Harmony complained.

He added: “We blame the state governor because for a long time, there is no water in the city and when fire fighters were called upon to intervene, they said they had no water. If there was water in the state, perhaps, our colleague would not have died.”

The students, who attempted to defy security instructions at the gate, only behaved themselves when they noticed that the governor was nowhere near the office. However, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Students and Youths Mobilization, Prince Michael Nku later came and address the students, telling them government was going to assist the family of the victims.

“When the last incident happened in April, the governor gave instruction that all structures under high tensioned wire be demolished. We don’t want this kind of thing to continue. But I can assure you that the governor, through SEMA, will assist victims of the electrocution,” Nku said.

Edem Bassey, Calabar