Education

BIU students protest death of colleague during football match

Students of the Benson Idahosa University (BIU), Benin, on Tuesday, trooped out in protest at the Legacy Campus of the university over the death of a final student of the university, Bruno Chigozie Ezeonye, who was said to have slumped and died during a football match.

Ezeonye, aged 21, was said to be the only son and second child of his parents, who are based outside the country. The deceased’s father, Nigerian Tribune gathered, is from Anambra State, while his mother is from South Africa.

It was further gathered that the deceased, an active footballer, collapsed on Monday while playing football at the campus football pitch as help did not come on time as the doctors and nurses in the health facility on the campus were said to be “foot-dragging in the face of an emergency condition”, a parent who spoke on the condition of anonymity told journalists in Benin on Tuesday.

“The Clinic workers have always shown a lackadaisical attitude, and this has always been complained to the university authority but did nothing about it.

“When they eventually responded and needed to refer him to Faith Mediplex Hospital, an affiliate of the Institution, located at Airport Road, a far distance from the Legacy Campus, they said the ambulance driver complained that there was no petrol in the ambulance. For a school that collects millions of Naira from students?” The distraught parent lamented.

The aggrieved students were reported to have mobilised for protest on Tuesday morning, after vandalizing the school’s clinic and security post, when the news of the death of Ezeonye filtered.

The President of the university, Bishop Feb Idahosa, was said to have intervened by appealing to the protesting students.

Efforts to reach the Head, Communication and Brand Strategy Unit of the university, Mr Temi Esonamunjor, failed as his phone was switched off, while the Head, Students’ Services Unit of the university, Awipi Emmanuel, did not answer his calls.

READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE