A final year Engineering student of Madonna University,
Akpugo campus, Enugu, Stanley Okoye, has narrated how he
and his friend, Lord Galim, were allegedly assaulted, locked in
a vehicle boot and abducted by the institution’s Dean, Student
Affairs, Rev. Fr. Isaac Jinga, and the Chief Security Officer,
Ogbonna Oke.


Okoye alleged that he was beaten so badly that he suffered a
spinal injury and sustained cuts on his face and all over his
body while his friend had a fractured upper and lower jaws,
internal and external ear injuries, torn lips, bloodied eyes and
abdominal and chest pains.



After their ordeal, the two students were allegedly taken
secretly to the Madonna University Teaching Hospital, Elele,
Rivers State for surgeries by their torturers, who seized their
phones to prevent them from communicating with their
families.


For the criminal attack on the two students, Jinga and Oke
were arraigned by the police at an Nkanu West Magistrate
Court, Enugu on July 14, 2015 on a two-count charge of
felony, causing grievous bodily harm with intent to maim, and
disfigure their victims.


Okoye’s parents had also taken the matter further by
instituting a N1bn suit against the university authorities at the
Federal High Court, Enugu, for the criminal assault on their son
and his friend.



Trouble started for Okoye and Galim on February 3, when he
was roughly woken up from sleep around 12am by Jinga, who
was accompanied by three hall representatives, and an armed
soldier.
Rev. Fr. Isaac Jinga
Okoye explained that Jinga demanded for Galim, who stayed in
another room in the hostel.

The men, he said, left and returned
with Galim and asked Okoye to come with them.
He said, “We were taken to the hostel entrance and asked to
board the Dean’s Lexus jeep and we were taken to the
administrative block. Jinga then called the CSO and we were
asked to lie down on the rough ground; Jinga and the CSO
started beating us with planks, iron and other objects.
“We asked why they were beating us and they said the CSO
was attacked outside the campus and they said they suspected
us of having a hand in it. They continued beating us for a long
time, we attempted to run away, but the Dean asked the
soldier to shoot us and when we saw him cocking his gun, we
stopped,” Okoye narrated.


The 23-year-old further explained that after being beaten for a
long time, Jinga and Ogbonna allegedly bundled him and his
friend in the boots of a Toyota 4Runner SUV and a Lexus SUV
and took them to Akpugo Police Station, but they were rejected
by policemen, who insisted that they should be taken to a
hospital for treatment.
Rather than take them to a hospital, Okoye said their abductors
put them back in the vehicle boots and drove them back to the
campus clinic, where their faces were stitched.



“They locked us in a room and kept a guard outside the door.
They seized our phones and we were there from February 4th
to 5th. The reverend father threatened that he would kill us and
nothing would happen. I found a sheet of paper, wrote my dad
and sister’s numbers and threw it out, somebody picked it and
informed my dad about my ordeal,” he recalled.


The young man stated that his dad was shocked when he was
brought to see him at the school security post on February 5.
Two policemen attached to the school reportedly destroyed his
father’s camera when he was trying to take photographs of his
son.


Okoye further narrated that when his dad left, the school
management took him and Galim to the Madonna Teaching
Hospital, when they noticed that he was coughing out blood
due to internal injuries.


He said, “We were driven to the teaching hospital on the night
of February 5 where we underwent surgeries. We spent seven
weeks there, but the school management did not inform our
parents and when my father heard that we were in Port
Harcourt, he was mad.



“They later discharged us when my father came there with
soldiers. Till now, I still have pains in my spine where I was hit
with an iron rod.
Jinga did not respond to several calls to his phone as well as a
text message. Ogbonna refused to comment, saying questions
should be directed to the school management.


The Enugu Police Public Relations Officer, Ebere Amarizu, did
not respond to several calls and the text message sent to him.
The Media Consultant to the university, Emeka Okpala, declined


to comment, saying the case is in court. “I can’t comment on
the case because it is in court already, but by the time I send
you e-mails on the activities of those boys, you would know
that they are very bad,” he said over the phone.
Meanwhile, the Madonna University Alumni Association has
condemned the inhumane treatment of the two
undergraduates.

The association said such violence should have no place in the
university and the society at large.


The association in a statement signed by a spokesperson,
Esharegharan Elvis, sympathised with the students and their
families while also calling on the management of Madonna
University to act swiftly to ensure a peaceful resolution of the
case.


It said, “We also call on the university management to open a
board of inquiry to investigate this concern and other pre-
existing concerns with regards to human rights of the students
of the university.



“A dedicated channel (e-mail and helpline) shall be set up to
this effect and we welcome inputs from all current and past
students of this great institution. The alumni will continue to
project a positive image of our fellow graduates and we are
committed to intensifying efforts to create a better environment


for the undergraduates.
“We will continue to fight for the students’ rights as steps are
being taken to re-energise and re-strengthen our Alumni desk
to keep an eye on any such cases
“The high-handedness and excessive use of power by security


officials in the school premises against students should be
curtailed while decency should be applied in all dealings with
students.”

https://www.facebook.com/ToriWowoOn1045LoveFmAbuja/photos/a.404436296376421.1073741832.147647475388639/519770531509663/?type=1&refid=7&_ft_=qid.6185870307749303631%3Amf_story_key.7658696431174358424%3AeligibleForSeeFirstBumping.&__tn__=%2As