Itsekiri students petition IG over killing of colleague in Oghara

THE cruel murder of Itsekiri-born Miss Oritsegbugbemi Edith Udu, an ND 2 student of Delta State Polytechnic (DESPO), Otefe-Oghara in Ethiope West Local Government Area, Delta State, is causing more row, as aggrieved associations of the Itsekiri extraction have petitioned the acting Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Kpotun Idris.

Worried by the mysterious way the budding laboratory technologist was hacked down in her prime and the seeming lackadaisical attitude of the state government and the police at unravelling the killers, the National Association of Itsekiri Graduates (NAIG) and the National Association of Itsekiri Students (NAIS), had earlier, last week, issued a one-week ultimatum to find killers of the slain student.

The ultimatum was handed Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, the Delta State Commissioner of Police, CP Zanna Ibrahim and the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the polytechnic to fish out the killers or face the wrath of the students.

NAIG and NAIS, in the statement issued on Friday July 8, and signed by their leaders, Comrade Collins Oritsetimeyin Edema and Comrade Oritseneye Fredrick, expressed sadness over the inertia of the state government, the police and the school authorities over the incident.

With the ultimatum expiring this week with no seeming tangible feedback from the stakeholders, the associations had gone further to petition the IG through the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Abuja, to swiftly effect concrete investigations into the murder and apprehend the perpetrators.

A Warri-based legal firm, Robinson Ariyo & Co, which filed the petition on behalf of the Itsekiri graduates and students’ bodies, expressed dissatisfaction at how far the police had gone over the case.

The firm described the actions so far taken by the police as regards the killing as “lackluster and creating very strong suspicion in the minds of our clients (NAIG and NAIS) that this heinous crime might eventually suffer the casualty of failed and inconclusive investigation.”

Copies of the petition were sent to President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Okowa, Member Representing Warri Federal Constituency at the National Assembly, Honourable Daniel Reyenieju as well as the three lawmakers of Itsekiri extraction in the Delta State House of Assembly.

The Itsekiri students’ bodies urged the DIG and other stakeholders to wade into the “already volatile issue accordingly and prosecute those involved with a view to instilling order and discouraging acts unbecoming of a civilized society.”

Miss Oritsegbugbemi Udu, an ND 2 Part-Time student of the Department of Science Laboratory, it will be recalled, was murdered and dumped near the fence of DESPO, Oghara Staff Quarters by suspected ritualists.

Her decomposing corpse was found on July 7 according to the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Celestina Kalu, who said that on observation by detectives from Oghara Division, “no visible marks of violence on the body except whitish foam from the nose and mouth.”

Kalu noted that the remains of the young lady were thereafter evacuated and deposited at the Delta State Teaching Hospital Mortuary, Oghara, adding that post-mortem examination was underway to ascertain the cause of her death, while investigations were rigorously ongoing.