- Female Students Allege Rape, Inadequate Security
By Amos Aar
FEMALE students of the Alfred Akawe Torkula Polytechnic, Makurdi, Benue State have raised alarm over frequent attacks on them in their hostels by armed robbers, who allegedly rape some of them.
Six female students who spoke with National Record on the condition of anonymity during a visit to the institution on Monday said the robbery attacks have become too frequent that many female students have relocated to outside the campus.
One of them said she was lucky when to be off campus recently when the hoodlums came and carted away her mates’ mobile phones after raping some of them.
“I was not around but according to what I heard, the armed robbers came and packed the students’ phones and raped them as well. But they did not cause any damage on building structures and facilities,” the female student said, adding that the criminals were outsiders.
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Corroborating the female students, male students living in the hostels said the incessant attacks on the female students forced majority of them to stay off campus.
Although the male students said they had never been attacked in their hostels, they were worried that the hoodlums may visit them one day.
“We don’t know whether one day they will come and rob us as well”, the boys expressed fear.
Inadequate security guards
The students complained that one of the reasons for incessant attacks is inadequate security guards to secure the school.
National Record gathered that the institution has in its employment only seven security guards to protect the vast perimeters of the campus.
To make the situation worse, the institution has no perimeter fence, making the entire campus porous and vulnerable to attacks by all sorts of criminal elements.
Rector says attack on schools not a new menace
When asked on the efforts being made by the management of the institution to secure the school and protect the students from further attacks, Rector of the institution, Prof. Barns Anger, who was largely reticent on the security situation of the school, however said attack on students in schools was not a new thing as it was happening in other schools including even those with perimeter fences.
Contrary to the testimony of students, Prof Anger argued that robbery incident occurred only once. He said the incident was just a manifestation of a major problem affecting the institution which according to him is the prolonged freezing of bank accounts of government functionaries on the inception of the Governor Hyacinth Alia’s administration.
“If you come and stand here and look at that school, the first thing that will come to your mind is that the place is not functioning. You should be asking; why is it not functioning?
“Robberies are everywhere in Nigeria. They have become accepted norm now if you ask me. I have a report from a blogger that a certain armed robbery case took place in a polytechnic. They came and killed students and molested others.
“We have had one armed robbery case here. They were even using toy guns. So, that’s not a problem to us. I will not even talk about it,” Prof, Anger asserted.
Asked further why the robbery was not a problem to the institution even as some students were said have relocated out of the hostels as a result of incessant attacks when some of the female students were allegedly raped, Anger simply responded: “Those who relocated were misinformed. I won’t worry about students who are misinformed. You are in an environment and something happens, ask questions, don’t take your decision because the place doesn’t belong to you.”
He lamented that the prolonged freezing of the institution’s bank account by the state government was hindering the running of the institution and to reposition it by way of reconstruction and renovation.
“You would have known that for over nine months now, all accounts of government schools have been frozen. All the schools. How are we running the school without funds? I think that should concern people more than the robbery issue in the hostels.
“The issue of freezing accounts, I don’t know why that should happen. And the issue of armed robbery in the hostels, to my mind, that is not a huge deal because if our school were isolated for that action, I would have understood. But that is what is happening everywhere in Nigeria,” he explained.
On the attribution of the robbery incidents in the hostels to absence of perimeter fence and inadequate security personnel, the rector said: “But these schools that were attacked had a perimeter fence. They do have perimeter fence; they do have properly organised security system.
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“I think the fundamental thing is that accounts should be unfrozen so that schools will be rehabilitated. Like in the female hostels, windows should be fixed to give them more sense of security around them. None of those things can be done without the accounts being functional. I think that’s the foundation of the problem. These other ones you are looking at are the manifestation.
“What we need is unfreezing of accounts. We don’t need more than that. If money is released, that hostel will be renovated with new doors and part-time security team will be paid. When you pay people, you commit them. When you don’t pay people for long, you don’t have control over them anymore.
“When you address all those issues, the issue of security will be resolved.”
An enquiry message on the robbery and rape incidents in the school sent via WhatsApp to the Benue State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Superintendent of Police (SP) Catherine Sewuese Anene, was not responded to as at press time.
It would be recalled that the administration of former Governor Samuel Ortom had on Monday, January 20, 2020, approved the conversion of the then Akawe Torkula College of Advanced and Professional Studies (ATCAPS) to Akawe Torkula Polytechnic (ATP), Makurdi.
The government had said the decision to convert the institution to polytechnics, which then was preparing students for IJMB examinations among other diploma courses, was to enable them to meet accreditation requirements set by National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).
The IJMB component of the curriculum, National Record gathered, is still being operated in the polytechnic.
