Students of the Petroleum Training Institute,
Effurun, Delta State, have maintained that their reaction to the
‘strange’ visitors to their school last week was due to the security
situation in the state.
The police and state tax officials that visited the
school last week to arrest the chief accountant for non-remission of
taxes had complained of assault by the students.
The Chief Security Officer of the school had
reportedly mobilised the students, who locked all exits from the
institution against the law enforcement agents.
But in a response by the National Association of
Nigerian Students, the body condemned the action of the police, noting
that the officers acted crudely, considering the rampant cases of
kidnapping in the state.
NANS Zone B Coordinator, Chinonso Obasi, noted that
Nigerian students in PTI did not take any policeman or tax officer
hostage as alleged, but were only reacting to an unusual situation.
“Considering the security situation in the country
and the series of kidnapping that had been taking place in the institute
lately, security personnel, students and staff are always on the alert
against any recurrence that could pose a threat to life and property in
the institute,” noted NANS.
The students said that a top management employee of the school had been seized earlier this month, using the same tactics.
“On June 10, 2012, a management staff member of the
institute was kidnapped by persons who impersonated police officers and
took him away in a vehicle with government’s official number plate. He
was later released on June 14 in Bayelsa State,” explained the student
body.
According to the students, the police and tax
officers ignored security interrogation at the institute’s main gate and
forced their way through to the administrative building, where they
forcibly took one Akamune of the Accounting Department into their
vehicle after manhandling him.
“The police force and concerned agencies should
endeavour to discharge their duties in a manner that conforms to law and
order,” the students said.
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