Ikpeazu orders landlords of student hostels to conduct identity audit

Following the gruesome murder of two students whose heads were chopped off their bodies by rival cult group a week ago in the Abia State University, Uturu, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has ordered all proprietors of commercial hostels around all the campuses in the state to conduct a profiling exercise of all inmates in their hostels.

In a press statement issued by his chief press secretary, Godwin Adindu, the governor said henceforth all proprietors of student commercial hostels must take responsibility for the activities that take place in their facilities and this would require that they take interest in the identity, background and profile of the students living in their hostels.

To achieve this, the governor directed that the proprietors must conduct regular   identity audit of the tenants of the hostels as to be able to ascertain the credibility of the persons in their custody, adding that student hostels would no more be operated as a mere business venture available to whoever that could afford such facilities.

The ABSU cult killing took place at Chidoo Hostel, which is about four kilometres away from the university. According to the press statement, investigations had also confirmed that most of the cult attacks were hatched and launched from the off-campus hostels around the universities and polytechnics.

To this end, Ikpeazu directed that proprietors of student hostel to change the orientation and ensure that there were some measures of control and regulation which would help in the character development of the students, stressing also that they must make arrangement for security in the hostels that accommodate large number of students.

The governor also directed that the admission office should also conduct the profiling exercise during admissions, so as to trace the history of the students and their previous engagements.

Ikpeazu said these measures had become necessary as a step towards combating the culture of terrorism among students.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Abia state Students, National secretariat haws condemned in its totality the barbaric and inhuman act that took place in Abia state University on March 12, where two ABSU students, living at Chidoo Lodge off campus were beheaded while others were seriously wounded in the name of cult.

In a statement made available to BusinessDay in Umuahia signed by Kalu Okecchukwu Wilson and Victor Ejimofor, national president and national secretary, respectively, charged and reminded fellow students at ABSU such ugly incident should not be allowed to repeat itself.

The Association called for the deployment of security agencies at ABSU off gate for routine checkpoint and appealed to security agencies to investigate the killing with a view to bringing the perpetrators to book.

The Group also commended Governor Ikpeazu for his untiring efforts to get rid of cultism and other social vices in Abia tertiary institutions.