On Monday, the management of the Federal University Dutsin-Ma (FUDMA) in Katsina announced a one-week mid-semester break after students began to protest the shooting of a colleague by members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF).
FUDMA students blocked major roads in the school as they demanded justice for their slain colleague.
On Tuesday, FIJ spoke with sources who revealed more details about the shooting and the protest on the condition of anonymity.
The source told FIJ that kidnapping is a common phenomenon in the Dutsin-Ma community, the town where FUDMA is situated, necessitating the presence of the JTF in the town.
On Sunday, Abdulkadir Saidu, the deceased student, took a bike from his home into Dutsin-Ma. He lived around the school campus.
READ ALSO: Robbers Attack UI’s Obafemi Awolowo Hall, Take Students’ Gadgets
The school itself is on the outskirts of Dutsin-Ma, so Saidu was headed into the main part of town.
FIJ’s source said the JTF tried to stop him and the bike man, but because the JTF were notorious for harassing students, they didn’t care to stop.
“So, they shot him and the bike man,” he said.
Abdulkadir Saidu, 400 Level Student of Agricultural Extension.
“According to the JTF, the bike man was a suspect that they were actually looking for. The Dutsin-Ma area is rampant with banditry and kidnapping. Sources confirmed that that was a lie, because the bike man lived close to where the student was living. He had always lived there. They said it was just a ploy to cover up their mess,” FIJ’s source added.
“Most of the JTF members are illiterates, and they have ammunitions. This is not the first time. Last year, they shot a Computer student and claimed that it was a stray bullet. The lady was a 400 Level student. These incessant killings made students angry and started the protest around 4 pm on Monday.”
The protest for justice, the student said, had originally started on Sunday. They moved from the student quarters to the school gate. The protest lasted till 10 pm.
It was not until security personnel teargassed the students that they were dispersed.
“On Monday morning, around 6:30 am, the protest continued. The Dean of Students Affairs came, the DVC came, the Chaplain came. The students kept complaining that they were waiting for the Vice Chancellor. The VC was not around, but he came around 9 am and addressed the students,” FIJ’s source narrated.
READ ALSO: Staff Frown as OAUTH Chief Moves to Remove Beds in Offices Because of Sexual Abuse Cases
“The VC joined the students and trekked a few distance from where the procession started to the school before he then addressed the students and went back, but the students were reluctant to disperse, and so the protest continued to some extent.
“After that, the Dean of Students said the issue had been resolved, the perpetrators had been arrested and justice would be served, that the school has closed for a week. That was how we saw in the media that the school had been on a one-week mid-semester break.”
After the announcement, the management mobilised some of Saidu’s classmates to take his corpse from the Federal Medical Centre in Katsina to ensure that all necessary rites were carried out.
FIJ tried to contact FUDMA, but both the email and the line on its website were hidden.
The post JTF Killed FUDMA Student on Bike. Protest, Shutdown Followed appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.