UNICAL Cancel SUG Election As Three Students Shot

by crossriverwatch admin

The University of Calabar yesterday announced the cancellation of the Students Union Government Elections after three students were shot “accidentally” by the school security operatives known as Surveillance.

The announcement was made by the Vice Chancellor Prof James Epoke after a seemingly peaceful election snowballed into protest and a call for cancellation of the elections by students during ballot counting.

From the reaction of most students the protest was as a result of disenfranchisement and many electoral irregularities, a situation the students saw as a calculated attempt by management to rig and impose
their “annointed” candidate on the students.

Our reporter who was present at the scene of the incident said many students had ignored the heavy downpour and came out to cast their votes only for most of them not to see their name in the voters registration list and were sent to a “special center” to rectify the issue.

Most students were still trying to rectify their problem when voting was stopped, an act that prompted students to start chanting “we want to vote” and chasing after the electoral officers and security men who were moving the ballot box to where it was to be counted.

In the midst of the confusion, security men started firing shots in the air to disperse the students. This only made matters worse as students retaliated by throwing stones at the security men.

It was while trying to avoid one of these stones, that a security personnel fell and dropped his gun that automatically fired, getting one student in the stomach, the other in the face and another in his hand, an incident that got students more angry and nearly lynching the police SARS team that had come to arrest some students.

The protest was only stopped from turning into a riot when the incumbent SUG President Comrade Bassey Eka, Dean Students’ Affairs Professor Eyong Eyong and Vice Chancellor Prof James Epoke had all assured the students that their shot colleagues, who had earlier been taken to the hostel were all fine.

One of the shot students was later driven to all hostels so as to disperse the rumor of his death.

The election will be held at a later date the management will announce later.

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