A suspected armed cultist has been burned to death, while three others fled following the gruesome murder of a final year computer science student at the University of Uyo (UNIUYO).
The deceased was allegedly killed by hoodlums who struck in the students’ communities of Idak Okpo, Nnung Anyan, and other adjoining areas in Ita, in the Itu local government area of Akwa Ibom State.
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The final year student, identified as Daniel Okon, from Oron LGA, until his demise, lived at 13, Ikpa Lane, and her neighbour, whose house was also attacked, said the deceased was shot dead in the early hours of Sunday, at 12:51 am, by dozens of cultists on a house-to-house raid for phones, laptops, and cash.
She said the late Dan was with his girlfriend when the thieves started the operation at 12:51 a.m. and moved from compound to compound, searching every room along Ikpa Lane and others in the Idak Okpo community for valuables to steal.
“When they shouted at him (the deceased) to open the door, he refused, and I think it was because of his girlfriend, who came that Saturday night to spend the night. And immediately, they (the criminals) succeeded in forcefully opening the door. The guy was attacked with gunshots to his stomach by the navel region.
“With the gunshot wounds, he struggled and fled into the thick night and later collapsed in the backyard as the effects of the gunshot took hold of him. After he fled, the armed robbers also fled, but summoned courage to return and picked up his (the deceased) phone,” she stressed.
The landlord, Mr. Archibong Elong’s room, her room, and others, according to her, were also raided with phones, laptops, and cash, seized, lamenting that “the whereabouts of the girlfriend to the deceased arrested by the police, who only responded to the distressed calls after about two hours after the attack, were yet to be established.”
It was gathered that the late graduate would have been saved, but for the late arrival of the tricyclist, who took the victim first to the nearby UNIUYO Clinic, where medics rejected him, he eventually died of blood loss at the referral Anua General Hospital in the Nwaniba area of Uyo, the state capital.
However, the commissioner of police (CP), Mr. Waheed Ayilara, has vowed to comb criminal hideouts across the state to fish them out and ensure peace in the state.
He said, “I am using this medium to prevail on all criminals and their collaborators in the state to pack your bags and relocate from the state. It is not going to be business as usual. We shall take the battle to your hideouts and deny you freedom of action anywhere in the state.”