By Johnbosco  Agbakwuru, Calabar

Herbert Akpo, Director of Socials of the Student Union Government, Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH),was full of life, Thursday June 7, 2012, and went to school to write his semester examinations like other students. He never had the inkling that, after his first paper, that would be his last day as a student of the university and his existence on the mother earth.

Akpo, who was a third year student of visual art and from Obudu Local Government Area of  Cross River State, at about  noon that fateful day, was said to have received a call  on his cell phone to come for lunch  with the yet to be identified assassins in a restaurant within the university campus.

It was gathered that  it was in the course of the lunch with the supposedly friends that he was shot in the head from behind while those behind the killing immediately jumped into the nearby bush and disappeared.

The late students leader, according to some of his colleagues, was sociable although he may appear in some situations to display some intimidating posture. The colleagues, however, claimed that but if he realized that he had offended anybody, he would  apologize.

Even though there were insinuations that he may have belonged to a cult group, it was gathered that one of the criteria for belonging to the Students Union Government exco of the university was non-involvement in cult related activity and, after thorough screening by security agencies, he was certified cult free which then qualified him to contest for the position of Director of Socials.

A lecturer in the Department of Visual Art in CRUTECH, Mr. Justin Obong, who described the late Akpo as his nephew, also debunked any such insinuation linking the late Akpo to any cult group.

Obong said the late SUG executive member was killed in a restaurant by suspected hired killers and that,as a member of the SUG, some students may have felt offended  by his actions in one way or the other.

Speaking to Sunday Vanguard in his office, the Dean, Students Affairs of  CRUTECH, Dr. Uduak Effiong, said information available to the university was that one of their students was shot dead between the hours of three and four on June 7.

Effiong said it was the only known death recorded which he said was carried out by unknown young men and that the university could not place the identity of the assailants which happened at a remote end of the university in a restaurant.

The Dean said that the management and staff of the university regretted the killing and that investigation was going on to unmask those behind the dastardly act.

He said that some arrest had been made but refused to mention the number.

A member of the Man’O War in the university, who was in the team that took  the body of the late Akpo to University of Calabar Teaching Hospital mortuary, Mr. Godwin Egbe, said he was in his apartment when he received a call that somebody had been shot and that he should come to attend to  the situation.

Egbe said, “Instantly, I woke up and went to the scene. On getting there, the people that shot him had run away. When it happened, students rushed there to know the person that was shot and the security personnel tried to control the situation.”

According to him, when it was confirmed by the university that Akpo was dead, his remains were taken to the UCTH.

He added that only three girls who had come to write  a  test at CRUTECH witnessed the fatal shooting.

The Man O War member said the slain student leader used to eat in front of his department and was surprised he went to the restaurant where he was killed, adding: “I have not known him to be a cultist.”

The elder brother of the deceased, Mr. Fidelis Akpo, who graduated from the Institute of Management Technology, Enugu, in civil engineering, in an emotion laden voice and with the clothes and shoes of his late brother soaked with blood, confirmed his brother was shot in the head.

“The school is full of bad boys. When they called me that my brother was shot, there was no police; only the Medical Director, Dr. Ita, two other members of Man O War and myself that took him to hospital,” Fidelis stated.

“I am terribly sad. I plead for justice to know what killed my brother. I shall not rest until I find out what killed my brother. May be it is only when a lecturer is killed that they (school authority) do something about security”.