Violence erupts in Rivers varsity as ‘cultists’ kill student

Violence erupted at the Rivers State University (RSU) on Thursday after a student of the institution was shot dead by suspected cultists.

It was gathered that the state police command has apprehended one suspect in relation to the incident.

The suspected cultists were said to have trailed the deceased to a cafeteria close to the institution’s faculty of management science in the early hours of the day.

One of them was said to have brought out a gun thereafter and shot the yet-to-be-identified student in the head.

When contacted by TheCable Lifestyle, Harcourt Whyte, the school’s public relations officer, confirmed the development.

Whyte said the suspected killer has been arrested by the police who have also launched an investigation into the incident.

He, however, disclosed that calm has been restored in the varsity, adding that students are currently taking their first semester exams.

“We lost one student this morning but I don’t know if he was killed by cultists. The situation is very calm now,” he said.

“The first-semester examination is still on. The person that shot the student has also been arrested and the police are currently investigating the matter.”

It was gathered that the corpse of the victim has been evacuated to a morgue in the state.

The police in Niger state had last month arrested 16 students of the Ibrahim Babangida University, Lapai after they were caught during what appeared to be a “cult initiation”.

Austin Izu, a 400-level student of the department of political science at the University of Benin (UNIBEN), was also shot dead by suspected cultists in June.