As reaction continues to pour in over the death of the three Uniport students, the mother of MR CHIADIKA BIRINGA, one of the students, Mrs. Chinwe BIRINGA, yesterday wrote a petition to the Senate demanding justice over the gruesome killing of her child and three others.
She denied claims that the students stole laptops and blackberry, adding “My son has had a Blackberry phone and in fact a laptop computer since he was in primary school. No way could my son steal such a common thing as a cell phone which every village woman now owns.”
Meanwhile during plenary President of the Senate, David Mark, while commenting on a motion on the gruesome killing said the spate of killings and incapacity of the security calls for state police creation.
The Senate also resolved that the police and security agencies must fish out the perpetrators of the crime, stressing that those spectators caught in the video should also be tried. They also expressed shock that elders in the community could allow such act to take place in their community.
The motion sponsored by Senator Ayogu Eze and 98 others, condemning the killing of university of Portharcourt students and one other person at Omuokiri Village in Aluu community in Rivers state on October 5.
Mark said: “We are worried that this has happened, and it is a test case for the police because the video is there for them to identify the perpetrators and they should quickly bring them to book. I think that the police are being challenged now to bring the perpetrators to book.
“I was against state police before but I have since changed my mind because the frequency with which crimes happen in this country and the difficulty the current police have in carrying out their investigations means that there are real security challenges that we need to address, and to address them, we must make sure that there are enough policemen that can police this country. The benefits of state police outweigh its disadvantages at the moment.”
Sen Ayogu Eze, while presenting the motion, described the dehumanising manner in which these four persons were stripped naked, marched along like common criminals, battered into stupor and eventually coma in a most horrifying display of callousness ever captured on celluloid before setting them ablaze in full glare of cheering and enthusiastic spectators and traducers.
Expressing worries that this killing is coming within one week after the murder of over 40 persons, majority of them students, Eze “hopes that the investigation into the matter in the wake of alleged deployment of officers and men of the Nigerian Police Force, Nigerian Army and the State Security Service in Aluu will be thorough, painstaking and dispassionate to avoid further miscarriage of justice by roping in some innocent people in the course of the prosecution of the case”.
Senator Olubunmi Adetumbi, described the Aluu killings as an expressing of an angry nation that is becoming disconnected from humanity, as a result of accumulated years of disappointment and neglect by government.
“This has resulted in anger and disregard for institution of state to moderate in affairs of daily life. People have become so angry that they are ready to draw blood and celebrate death. Nigerians are begining to lose their humanity because of the circumstances. The violence is begining to take a vertical motion. The killing in Mubi has children of the elites.
Soon we will have coalition of the oppressed and the states and elites will be in trouble. This is not an Aluu problem but a Nigerian problem.”
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu who said he knows one of victims parents, said the country cannot continue like this, while Sen. Ndoma Egba described the killings as a squandering of our future.
He added ” we have accepted impunity as a culture, our future is being barbecued and their is a collapse of social values. We must return those values that held us together as a country. Those values that have elder protecting their children and those values that make us our brothers keepers. This killing is disgraceful, bizzare, unacceptable and should be condemned by the senate in its strongest terms”.
Below is the petition Mrs. Chinwe BIRINGA.
October 9, 2012
His Excellency
Senator David Mark, GCON
President of the Senate National Assembly Complex Abuja
Your Excellency,
PETITION: GRUESOME MURDER OF MY SON AT ALUU, UNIVERSITY OF PORT HARCOURT HOST COMMUNITY
RE: MR CHIADIKA BIRINGA
My name is Mrs. Chinwe BIRINGA. I am the mother of Mr. Chiadika BIRINGA, a second year student of Theater Arts at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT). My husband is a very staff senior officer at the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
My son turned 20 years old this week and we gave him pocket money to celebrate it with his friends. On Friday morning, we were called by my second son, also a UNIPORT student, that all was not well and he was hearing bad rumours that villagers at ALUU, the host community of UNIPORT had murdered four students. I immediately rushed to the scene only to see my son’s dead body being taken away naked to a mortuary in UNIPORT Teaching Hospital. I could not believe my eyes and collapsed.
What did my son do? What did the other three young men who died with him do? First, we heard that the four students were alleged to have stolen a Blackberry phone and a laptop computer. This could not be further from the truth. My son has had a Blackberry phone and in fact a laptop computer since he was in primary school. No way could my son steal such a common thing as a cell phone which every village woman now owns.
We have been subjected to several gory videos and pictures on the internet. This shows that someone filmed the whole barbarism from beginning to end. My son and his friends were savagely beaten and burnt to death while villagers at ALUU watched. All this has been caught on film!
The video shows that all this was filmed in broad day light which suggests that they were killed after 7.30 am. Further investigation has revealed that they left their friend’s house at ALUU at about 7 am to go and prepare for lectures.
To waylay them and beat them with planks until they died like chicken is the most savage thing one can witness in Nigeria of 2012. First they were stripped naked, marched around like frogs and then beaten to death. What savagery and bestiality.
My husband and I want only two things, namely:
a) To clear the name of Chiadikab) justice Your Excellency, every responsible parent knows what I, my husband, and the entire family are passing through over this beastly murder. We do not want this thing to be swept under the rug like most Nigerian investigations. We seek the help and intervention of the Senate to ensure that justice is done. Justice is the only thing that can assuage the pains and emotional traumas consuming us and clear the name of our son so that he can rest in peace.
Again, and for emphasis, the film shows everything in clear view and all the perpetrators must answer for their crimes.
WE WANT JUSTICE. THOSE WHO MURDERED MY SON MUST FACE THE WRATH OF THE LAW.
Heartbroken mother,
Mrs. Chinwe, BIRINGA