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| The murdered students clockwise: Ugonna Obuzor, Mike Toku, Tekena Erikena, Biringa Lordson |
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| Ugonna Obuzor aka Tipsy (lead singer) via Facebook |
This story has gripped Nigeria so hard that when it happened on Friday the 5th of October 2012. YouTube was inundated with hits. They were beaten up with clubs so badly, one of them had his brain exposed off his skull, all this being videotaped while children and an entire village was watching. They were bloodied and then set on fire like animals and finally MURDERED! Yes, I am going all over Nigeria to educate entire villages that allowed this to happen and not stop it.
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| A younger Ugonna Obuzor aka Tipsy without braids via Facebook |
These young men were working on an album. They were aspiring rappers while studying in school. They were accused of allegedly steaking blackberry phones and laptops, two of Nigeria's prized possesions. I thought I was dealing with just an anti-volence issue, but little did I know that a track called "Aint no love in the heart of the city", was produced by two of these guys. OMG and they were so talented.
Parts of that song says "aint no love in this part of town." Sadly, the lyrics they sang were haunting as it became reality. Other lyrics include "growing up in PH city where wrong is made to look right." I get shivers everytime I hear the song.
SMH as the town took the law into their own hands. We live in a violent country where people flee all the time and countries like Canada actually think we are lying or filing bogus refugee claims and give every excuse not to help us. I'm sure these young men if they had the opportunity to flee, many of these foreign countries will never give them refuge like when I fled from violence that hurt and killed my fellow Journalists in a country I had not lived in 30 years. Now you have seen this with your own eyes.
Where are the cops? We don't have the same kind of law enforcement here. Three of deceased persons confirmed to be students of the university were Biringa Lordson, a year two Theatre Arts student; Ugonna Obuzor, a year two Geology student and Mike Toku, a year two Civil Engineering student. The fourth person killed alongside the other three was Tekena Erikena, the vice chancellor of the university added that efforts were still on to confirm if he was a student of the university. Tekena reminds me so much of Usher's younger brother J Lack with glasses.
The Vice Chancellor said though the university had declared seven days mourning period for the deceased students. Arrests of 13 people were made today including a village chief aka leader. I launched a twitter campaign today #StopViolenceNigeria which will let Nigerians communicate about violence.
If the entire village was living under the mercy of armed robbers and home invasions, law enforcement should be there. At the same time, this is a wake up call for the Nigerian police. They need to step up their game and the community needs to work together with them. One of the fathers of these young men is a senior oil worker in the oil rich city and told media he could buy any kind of laptop or phone for his son. Another father, that of Tekena said that his son was "so badly damaged that they had to bury him in the forest in an unmarked grave."
PLS NIGERIA, we have to educate each other! Violence is never the way--MsKemi
Visit my Anti-violence page
My Anti-Violence Twitter @Snitchlady
With files from Vanguard Nigeria
