Students of the Faculty of Arts, University of Uyo on Tuesday took to streets in procession to mourn their slain colleague, Miss Iniobong Umoren, who was murdered and buried in shallow grave when she attended a fake job interview last week
The students, numbering over 2000 in black outfits made specific call on wife of the Akwa Ibom state Governor, Mrs Martha Udom Emmanuel to play her motherly role for the motherless by ensuring that justice is served.
Speaking with newsmen during the procession, a leader of the 2015 entry set of the Faculty of Arts, Comrade Unyime Anietie said it was disheartening that their colleague have to die in such way after labouring so hard to go through school.
Aniette appealed to the Commissioner of Police and the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice to use Umoren’s case to demonstrate the value the government attached to the life of every individual.
“Iniobong Umoren did not deserve to die, she didn’t have to die after all the stress she went through in school. We want to please appeal to Mrs Martha Emmanuel to use FYREP, her pet project to ensure the perpetrator of such act is brought to book.
“If this is what it would take for rape and all other forms of gender- based violence to be brought to an end, then we appeal all stakeholders to see this case to a satisfying end. ” He said.
While sending a message of condolences to family of their deceased colleague, he appealed to young ladies to avoid isolated movement to unknown places, also charged young men to desist from all forms of violence and sexual abuses against women.
When contacted, the Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Uyo, Prof Joe Ushie decried that his late student, whose result he recently signed paid a supreme price as a double victim of a world that is morally dead.
“She did not deserve to have been murdered. She is a double victim of a world that is morally dead, a world whose morality is dead. Double victim in a sense that if the society had been the way it ought to be, there could have been no way a young Nigerian who went through school through difficulty would have to follow an unknown person to an unknown place, just to get something to do.
“So the society first offended her as it has offended almost all the youths of our country today. She paid the supreme price for society’s failure.
“But we all are victims on one level, victims in a sense that we have nothing to hang onto. Even the ones who have jobs are feeling the pressure of the joblessness of others, in the sense that the little you have, if you have a human heart, would not be enough because you cannot become an island.
“The whole University is bereaved, the whole University is mourning. it is not just about Faculty of Arts, it’s not about Oruk Anam students, it’s not about 2015 set. The whole thing is a shame, it is a disgrace that we have gone to the level of murdering fellow young Nigerians. It is like eating the flesh of our young ones.” Ushie lamented
