Men of the Ekiti state police command have taken over the secondary school in Ekiti state where a 16- year old student, Mattew Favour, was stabbed to death by a fellow student.
The school has now been taken over by police with the main gate under lock and key due to fear of alleged reprisal attacks.
It was alleged that the deceased’s family had issued a threat that its members would invade the school in protest on Friday.
A police hilux van, with over ten policemen, was stationed at the gate with few teachers allowed entry into the school while students who reported as early as 7am were asked to go back.
Favour, who was in Senior Secondary 2 before he was stabbed to death by a fellow student, Kehinde Timilehin, was said to have been in an alleged voo doo contest with the suspect to determine among either of them who actually had superior powers.
During the alleged contest, he was stabbed in the chest and later died at the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital(EKSUTH), Ado-Ekiti.
Several sources confirmed to journalists at the school that Favour, who was from Ebira extraction of Kogi State, actually brought the weapons but was killed after the axe and knife wrapped with white and red scarf could not pierce the suspect who overpowered him and stabbed him in self defence.
However, before the crisis degenerated to the level of stabbing each other, the two were said to have had altercation over ownership of a football earlier that day.
Narrating how the incident happened, the School Principal, Mr. Ebenezer Falayi and his Vice, Mr. Olurotimi Olaoluwa, explained that the incident occurred around 2.15pm at a far section of the institution after the school had closed.
Falayi said the school had closed for the day and that students were leaving when, suddenly, noise emanated from the troubled section where the boy was stabbed.
He said some teachers were, immediately mobilised to the place and took the victim to EKSUTH
. “This incident really saddened us, because it could have been avoided. What I gathered from students who were at the spot of the gory incident was that, the duo were arguing over who had superior power and the deceased had earlier gone home to bring all those weapons which could not pierce the suspect when used on him.
. “I was told that the suspect later overpowered him and collected those weapons and stabbed the victim in the chest.
Our teachers, including myself, my Vice and Registrar, alongside other teachers who were resident on campus here, rushed him to EKSUTH.
We even took the suspect along. “The victim was put on life support, but that could not help the situation, he died in the hospital.
I had to quickly call the DPO of Odo Ado Police Station who reinforced his men and contacted police station at Oke Ila to prevent the suspect from being killed by highly enraged deceased’s family members. “
“The hospital insisted on doing the autopsy before releasing the corpse but the family resisted it. They later released the corpse to the family when it nearly caused trouble in the hospital. “The police also took the suspect to custody .
But I had to beg for security beef up around the school when there was threat that 30 students will be killed in reprisal attack today(Friday),” Falayi stated.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, DSP Caleb Ikechukwu , said he has not been officially briefed about the killing.
But a police source confirmed that “the suspect was immediately taken to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at the Police Command shortly after the deceased was confirmed dead.”
Vanguard
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
