The Rector of Umaru Ali Shinkafi Polytechnic Sokoto, Prof. Aminu Ibrahim has explained that the murder of a student by her roommate, has not put Sokoto in tension, neither has it affected the academic activities of the institution.
The Rector also said that students were going on with their normal lecture, because, against media report by a national daily, the incident happened off campus, students were not on rampage and the suspect has been apprehended by the Police.
A national daily on Saturday reported the Polytechnic was shutdown and students protested as a result of the death of a female student who was stabbed her mate.
“There was palpable tension in the town following the killing last Wednesday… Our school was shut on Wednesday as students were angrily protesting what they described as the shady handling of the incident by the police and the school authority… We heard that the suspect has been released. There is an attempt to change the narratives of what happened and that is what we are against,” Aliu Kareem, a student unionist who is also an official of the school’s chapter of Federation of Oyo Students Union,” the paper stated.
However, the Rector at a press briefing stated as follows:
● The two students involved are both in their second semester of ND 1 and not ND 11 as reported by the paper
● The incident did not happen in the school hostel as reported by the paper; both are off campus students.
● The school has not been shut as a result of the incident as reported; school activities are still ongoing as scheduled.
● There has been no protest whatsoever by any student of the institution, either in the school premises or outside as reported by the paper
● There is no tension in Sokoto town or school premises as a result of the incident as reported by the paper
● The suspect is still in police custody at the police headquarters and not released by the police as reported.
● The Nation newspaper did not balance the story because the management of the institution was not contacted in any way before the story was published.
● The purported student, Aliu Kareem who was allegedly interviewed by the Nation Newspaper, is neither a student of the institution nor a member of Federated Association of Oyo State Students on our campus as reported.
The Rector condoled the family and the entire people of Oyo state where the deceased student and the alleged killer hail from.
