Students of the College of Education, Kwara State Polytechnic, along with their counterparts from other tertiary institutions in the area today continued their protest in Ilorin, the state capital, over yesterday’s shooting of one of their colleagues by a policeman.
Ahmed Dayo, who is said to be receiving treatment at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, was shot by a reckless policeman deployed to a bullion van being used by a commercial bank. He was said to have shot the student, who was in a taxi, while trying to shoot out the cab’s tires to clear the way for his van.
Responding in anger to what they characterized as the “barbaric and senseless” shooting of their colleague, the students marched in their thousands, making bonfires on such major streets as Taiwo, Unity, and Muritala, on their way to Government House. Their action paralyzed commercial and social activity in the town.
Condemning the incident, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights today described it as further evidence of Nigeria as a failed state, pointing out that across all of the country’s geo-political zones, there is insecurity of life and property.
It cited incidents of kidnapping, bank robberies, the Boko Haram insurgence, looting of the Pension Fund, and political brigandage even in the Governors Forum.
“This regime has lost focus and there is a state of ANOMIE in the land,” the group said.