It was gathered that the deceased identified as Ford Nkasi, a final year student of Visual Art Department, saw a gang robbing a female student of her smartphone and confronted them to retrieve the phone but they stabbed him several times and he bled to death.

According to eyewitnesses, the attack happened near the school’s administrative building some meters away from the security post at about 9pm on Thursday, and attempts to take the student to a hospital were allegedly delayed by the security officials who gave several excuses for not using the school vehicle at the security post to transport the victim.

Some students who spoke during the protest on Friday morning blamed the security men’s delay in taking the victim to the hospital as responsible for his death.

It was learned that Nkasi was a student of the Visual Arts Department and was in school for final clearance after his final-year examinations.

It was further gathered that the school’s security guards arrested two of the suspects.

One of the students said, “All we want is to let the school security release the suspects they have arrested to us. They said the suspects have been handed over to the police and with our experiences, crimes happened like this in the school, and suspects would be arrested and reported to be handed over to the police but nothing would be heard about it. That is our anger. Since the school cannot protect us, we will protect ourselves.’’

As of the time of this report, the school authorities had yet to issue any statement on the crisis.

The state Police Commissioner, Sikiru Akande, confirmed the incident, saying that some students protested and wanted to burn down the university’s administrative building following the student’s death.

He said cultists spearheaded the problem and “some of the cultists have been arrested, still some idiots gathered themselves under the guise of protesting against the death of a student; they wanted to burn the university administrative building; who will be at a loss? Any attempt by any group of persons, under any guise, to disturb the peace we have in Cross River State will be matched with the required force.’’