By PETER DURU, Makurdi
It was six hours of pandemonium and sheer madness in Makurdi, the Benue State capital on Wednessday when two students of the Benue State University, BSU, lost their lives while no fewer than 11 Police Officers and some other students were hospitalised after a turmoil that erupted in the town following a mob action that trailed an accident involving a heavy duty truck at the main entrance of BSU.

The accident which claimed the life of an ‘okada’ rider who was not a student of the BSU sparked angry reactions from students and ‘okada’ riders who were mobilized to the scene of the accident.

Saturday Vanguard gathered from eyewitnesses that the protest however degenerated when armed hoodlums hijacked the crisis, set bonfire on the Makurdi-Gboko highway and set ablaze the coporate headquarters of the Benue Internal Revenue Service, BIRS, after property worth hundreds of millions of naira were carted way by the mob.

The hoodlums who destroyed parts of Symbols Eatry also pulled down all the solar powered street lights on the highway just as they set cars, motorcycles and the power generating sets of the BIRS ablaze.

Official cars of the BIRS were not also spared as they were all vandalized and wrecked.

The miscreants who engaged the Police in a severe  battle after men of the command rescued the driver of the ill fated trailer from being killed, cornered another trailer loaded with cement and set it ablaze.

The development forced the authorities of the Benue State University to vacate all students on campus and announce an indefinite closure of the institution.

Among the first callers at the scene of the carnage were the BIRS Chairman, Andrew Ayabam, Benue State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Christopher Katso, former Attorney General and former Minister of Justice, Mike Aoundoakaa; top government functionaries and Deputy Governor of the State, Chief Steven Lawani all of whom described the level of destruction at the scene of the irate action as unimaginable,dastardly and wicked.

Lawani said the Police have been mobilized to fish out the masterminds of the mob action in order to make them face prosecution.

He said the action of the irate mob was completely unacceptable in a civilized society assuring that those behind the ill motivated action would definitely not go unpunished.

The Police Commissioner in the State told newsmen that the timely intervention of his men saved the situation from degenerating into a full blown crisis in the town.

According to the Police Commissioner, it took the swift intervention of his men to resue the truck driver who was on the verge of being killed by the mob.

The PPRO of the Command ASP Ejike Alaribe equally told newsmen that the Police is trailing the armed hoodlums who must have fired shots that killed the BSU students and injured others.

Alaribe informed that the Police have already commenced a thorough search of the BIRS neighborhood where some of the carted property of the BIRS have been recovered with ten suspects already arrested.

In his reaction after undertaking an on the spot assessment of the level of destruction at the vicinity, the former AGF Mike Aoundoakaa said the mob action was politically motivated. He wondered why any politician would resort to the destruction of public property as a means of venting his anger on the leadership of the state.

According to him, “this level of destruction is certainly not ordinary, it is unacceptable for anyone to hide under the cover of a protest to destroy public institutions. We must as politicians eschew politics of bitterness. Does it mean that we should resort to the destruction of public property because we do not like the face of the person in leadership?.

“This act is highly condemnable and it should be condemned by all Nigerians and indeed all Benue indegenes irrespective of political affiliation”, Aoundoakaa said.

The Executive Chairman of the BIRS, Mr. Andrew Ayabam who was physically moved by the level of destruction at his office, said the board would not be deterred by what has happened.

Ayabam who lamented that the devastation would definitely slow down the activities of the board however also assured that it would in no way distrupt the services of the board to the poeple of the state.

Speaking further on the attack on the BIRS headquarters, a staff of the board who craved anonymity said they were still in the office when the crisis erupted.

“We were surprised when a horde of armed young men stormed the office and ordered everyone outside. They warned that if we resist,they would shoot everyone of us.

“We had no choice but to run for our dear lives and also we saw the complete looting of all our offices after which they set the outer offices,cars and motorcycles ablaze”.

Reacting to the mayhem, the  National Association of Nigerian Students(NANS) condenmed in strong terms the use of confrontational measures in crisis on campuses saying that it has affected the academic calender of the BSU.

Comrade Adakole Ochai, the student body maintained that the kiling of “two of our students-Unogwu James,a 400 Physics Student,and Emmanuel Ayodele,a 100 level student of the Dept.of Biology and several others injured must not go unpunished”.

NANS also condemned the vandalizm of the BIRS cooperate headquarters where over 3,000 Benue youths have been gainfully employed in the last two years ascribing the action to  hoodlums and political rivals,who took advantage of the uproar to reck government property in order to deter development in the state.

He urged the state government to erect speed bumps on the Makurdi-Gboko highway where the BSU is located “just as we have in other institutions like UniJos,Nasarawa State University,Keffi, Unimaid to check the incessant killing of students on the road”.

NANS also assured that the National and Zonal office of the association would set up a 5 man panel to look into the occurance and submit their reports within 72 hours.