A 400 level student of the Cross River University of Technology was on Tuesday crushed to death on campus by a fellow student.
Eyewitnesses said the victim, Joseph Agbor, who was in the Department of Civil Engineering at the main campus of the university, was sitting close to the drainage as he waited for his lectures when a car driven by a 200 level student crushed him.
A student who pleaded anonymity said, “Immediately, the incident happened, the student who was driving the car rushed out and took the victim to the health centre on campus where he was later pronounced dead.”
Explaining what happened, the Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr. Onen Ebri Onen said a student approached another student who was receiving lectures and asked for the key to his car to take some items from the car.
He added that, instead of the student to remove the items, and return the key, the student decided to drive the car even though he doesn’t know how to drive. In the process, he ran into the 400 level Engineering student.
According to Onen, “The friend told him he should give him the car key while he was having lectures to take his properties from the car. Since he couldn’t leave the classroom, he decided to hand over the key to him, and so when he went to pick the properties, he decided to drive the car when he cannot drive. I don’t know how the accident happened because I wasn’t there. I was informed later when the boy was taken to the hospital.
“I got the story from my interaction with the owner of the vehicle. The victim is now in the mortuary. The car was impounded by the school security outfit and the driver and the owner of the vehicle are with the police.
“The accident was not as a result of speed limit. The guy parked his car somewhere and attending class and his friend now came to him in class and said he wanted to retrieve his properties from the car. For him not to abandon his class, he decided to give him the car key to go and remove his properties and then give him back the car key but along the line, when he got to the car, he decided to drive it and we hear he cannot drive and moreover the car was parked. That’s what the owner of the vehicle told me.”
The State Police Command Public Relations Officer, DSP Irene Ugbo confirmed that the driver has been taken into custody.
“He is with us. Why was he driving recklessly on campus? We are investigating whether he was drunk at the time the incident happened and we want to find out other causes of the accident,” she said.