Varsity student caught with bombs on campus

There was anxiety at the University of
Uyo (UNIUYO) campus in Akwa Ibom
State yesterday when a part one student
(names withheld) was caught with two
hand grenades tucked in his bag by
operatives of Peace on Campus
Initiatives (PCI), an anti-cultism NGO
operating on campuses of higher
institutions.
Two improvised explosive devices (IEDs),
widely speculated as hand grenades,
were found in a bag that belonged to the
suspect by some students, who alerted
the PCI.
National Coordinator of PCI, Mr. Oliver
Cromwell, said yesterday that his men in
the UNIUYO chapter got information
about the suspect keeping the IEDs, and
trailed him to his males’ hostel.
Cromwell said his men on discovering
the bombs that were well-packaged in a
bag in the hostel’s room, apprehended
the suspect and invited the anti-bomb
squad of the state police command, Ikot
Akpan Abia, Uyo, to the scene for
verification. The squad detonated the
two devices and searched the hostel
rooms for more.
The suspect who was said to have
confessed during interrogation, to
keeping the explosives, dismissed that he
bought or made them with intent to
wreaking havoc on campus. According to
him, he found the devices within the
school premises, saying he was trying to
hand them over to the university’s
security.
“It all started on Friday when I was
coming back from church. Just close to
where the construction was going on, I
saw two white things on the ground.
When I picked them, I saw the
instruction ‘hand grenade.”
He however, did not explain why he did
not alert the school security.
The command’s spokesman, Mr. Etim
Dickson, a Deputy Superintendent of
Police, who confirmed the incident,
however, explained that the explosives
were local devices, which could have
been invented by any of the science
students in the university.
Promising that the police would
investigate, Dickson urged students and
parents not to entertain any fear about
possible breakdown of law and order in
the university community. “The incident
had been properly taken care of. We are
on top of the situation as we urge all
students and employees of the institution
to go about their normal businesses. We
shall get to the root of the mater,” he
said.
The university’s spokesman, Mr Godfrey
Essien, confirmed the incident, but
stressed that he would not speak further
on it since the matter had been taken
over by the police.