Delta State Polytechnic Forced to Close Following Attacks on Students by Hoodlums

Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi Uku, has been compelled to close down indefinitely due to repeated attacks on students by hoodlums.

The Rector of the institution, Prof. Emmanuel Achuenu, announced the closure during the weekend, with students expected to resume academic activities on Monday, February 26.

The Students Union Government (SUG) of the school also issued a statement directing all students in the hostels to comply with the management’s directive to proceed on a semi-semester break.

Reports from Ogwashi- Uku indicate that most of the hostels, both outside and inside the campus, have been deserted due to fears of further attacks by hoodlums.

Several students have reportedly lost their mobile phones and laptops to the hoodlums, while there have been disturbing reports of female students being sexually assaulted.

An eyewitness, Chisom Gladys, recounted how the hoodlums carried out the attacks on students.

“They went to the first room, bending the steel protector and pulling out the rods in the casement window to gain entrance and proceeded to rob the boy who stays in the room.

“If they had continued breaking down the doors like that, they would have come across my room, but it seems they noticed that most of the persons staying in the first block of the hostel were girls, so they switched to the second block which was occupied by boys, and that was how I escaped being robbed.

“They robbed the first room in the block, carting away phones and other valuable properties, and it was in the second room that they shot the boy residing there in the leg.

“According to what we heard coming from the room, the boy was shot twice, but the first bullet failed to penetrate his body, while he was able to extract the second bullet from his leg by himself before the police arrived and took him to the hospital hours later.

“The last room that was robbed was occupied by a boy who happened to be sleeping on his corridor because of the heat.

Immediately he woke up and saw the robbers, he tried to run inside the house but he was caught and beaten thoroughly with cutlasses and other weapons.”

The state Commissioner of Police, Abaniwonda Olufemi, has reportedly summoned the area commander and the divisional police officer in Ogwashi-Uku to address the situation.