The Caretaker Committee of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Imo state council led by Comrade Precious Nwadike has called on the Commissioner of Police in the state, Hussaini Rabiu to urgently investigate the alleged brutality of Imo State University students in one of their hostels by officers of the command a few days ago, in order to bring justice to the victims.
Blueprint correspondent gathered that some officers of the command had stormed Olive Hostel outside the school last Thursday and in the process, allegedly destroyed some doors and windows of the hostel; beat up some students, made away with some items belonging to them, took them to the station and collected money from them before their release.
The hostel President, Cephas Izuchukwu, and some of the victims, who spoke to newsmen on why the police invaded the hostel, said the policemen took the action because a female student suspected to be a girl friend to one of the police officers, fought with her roommate that was squatting her. In order to show her pedigree, decided to report to her police boyfriend who swiftly responded by bringing in his fellow officers who drove straight to the school to unleash the mayhem.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Imo state Command, CSP Mike Abattam said they had gotten a report on the incident but that he was not in town as at the time the incident occurred. He, however, promised to look into the matter on return the next day.
In a release issued and made available to newsmen from his office later, the aspects of alleged brutality, destruction, beating up of students and collecting money before their release were not mentioned.
Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer Imo State University, Nze Raph Njoku Obi, was not disposed at the time of filing this report; he however assured that the Dean of Students Affairs, Prof Okee Okoro and Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the school would handle the matter.
