“I want to announce that we
have made a breakthrough in
the Aluu killings. The two main
suspects in the case have been
arrested and they will be
prosecuted.”
The police on Tuesday
announced a major
breakthrough in their
investigation into the lynching of
four University of Port Harcourt
students. The Inspector General
of Police disclosed the arrest
during a security meeting with
Chief Executive Officers and
security officers of banks at the
Force Headquarters, Abuja.
The arrest brings the number of
suspects arrested by the police
to 23 in the videotaped lynching
of the four innocent students
which sparked outrage
nationwide after the clip of the
killings went viral on the Internet.
The police has named Coxson
Lucky, alias Bright, as the
mastermind of the lynching.
Lucky, who owe one of the
students an undisclosed sum of
money, reportedly raised the
alarm that the students were
robbers when they went to his
house to demand for the
money. The mob, which
converged on the venue of the
altercation, then beat and burn
the students to death.
However, two of the suspects,
who admitted taking part in the
mob action, claimed that their
involvement was “minimal”.
While the first suspect, David
Chinasa Ugbaje, said he only hit
the students twice, another
suspect, Ikechukwu Loius Amadi,
claimed that he only beat the
students once with a small stick.
Ugbaje, who said he was a
cobbler, described one of the
students as his customer. He
said, “Around 7am on that day, I
saw a crowd beating four boys. I
asked who the four men were
and they (crowd) said they were
armed robbers. So, along the
line, we went there. I opened
the gate and they entered. I
could not control the crowd.
They pointed at one of our co-
tenants; the name of the person
is Bright.
“Some people said they wanted
to break Bright’s door. So, they
started beating the boys very
seriously. They took them out
from my street. I now left the
house. I only beat them twice.”
Ugbaje disclosed that while one
policeman at the scene of the
incident pleaded with the mob
to hand over the students to
them, another beat the
students. “Along the line, two
policemen arrived. One of the
policemen was pleading (for the
boys), the other one joined in
beating the boys. After beating
the boys, the police now said the
boys should be handed over to
them. The crowd shouted, ‘We
no go gree, we no go gree,” he
said.
The killed students have been
identified by the management of
the university as 19-year-old
Lloyd Toku ( 200 level Civil
Engineering); 18-year-old
Ugonna Obuzor (200 level
Geology student); 20-year-old
Chiadika Biringa, (200 level
Theatre Arts student); and
Tekena Erikena, a 20-year-old a
diploma (Technical) student.
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