Cultists kill final year CRUTECH student in Calabar

A final year student of Electrical Engineering, Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH), was yesterday stabbed to death by suspected cultists.

The student, simply identified as James, was shot at and cut with machete yesterday morning while writing his first-semester examination at the university’s old engineering block building.

A source who witnessed the sad incident said the victim was shot several times in the chest and later stabbed with an axe to ensure he died before they left him in the pool of his blood. She said this made some students in the examination hall suspected to be cultists hurriedly submit their empty sheets and escaped from the hall.

According to her, “after hearing gunshots and being alerted that a student has been shot dead at the Electrical Engineering Department, some lecturers in the Civil Engineering Department made an announcement in the hall where Civil Engineering 500-Level students were writing their final paper.

“They told all cult members to either leave the hall quietly or bear the security risk themselves, as there is no security presence at the faculty. Surprisingly, a few students got up, submitted their empty sheets and left. Some even forcefully collected their colleagues’ sheets in order to leave in groups.”

It was later gathered that some group of cultists, dressed in black, stormed the university looking for members of the rival gang for a reprisal attack.

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of CRUTECH, Mr. Onen Onen, said he was not in school when the incident occurred and could not relay any information to the press at the time of filing this report.

Meanwhile, the Cross River Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Irene Ugbo, confirmed the incident, noting that the DPO of Efut Division, has deposited the body of the deceased in the mortuary.

“I am aware that a final year student was gunned down by suspected cultist at CRUTECH, his body has been deposited at the mortuary by the DPO of Efut Divisional Police Station. An investigation has already started and we are carrying out a covert operation as we speak.

“I learned it is cult-related, the supremacy of power among cult groups and their hierarchy but we will get to the root of the matter,” she said.