Dbanj condemns UNIPORT student massacre in Nigeria

Nigerian singer, Oladapo Daniel Oyebanjo alias D’banj in his role as a UN Youth Ambassador for Peace has released a statement following the gruesome murder of four University of Port Harcourt students accused of stealing mobile phones.He wrote: “They were my brothers…and yours. Five days ago, I woke up to yet another unspeakable tragedy.  Four young men, all undergraduates, brimming with great dreams, unfulfilled aspirations and a promising future were killed. ” “To express the depth of my pain and shock at their murder is impossible. And understanding how events could have degenerated to this level is truthfully beyond me.” “Lloyd, Ugo, Tekana and Chidiaka , Four promising young men whose lives were interwoven in one way or the other with yours and mine. I mourn deeply with the families of these young men because this is OUR collective loss. They were our colleagues, our classmates, our neighbors, our brothers… our friends.” “We are NOT a nation of barbarians. We CAN follow due processes and procedures. We MUST fight together as ONE NATION to ensure that Justice as a whole is served, and as a PROCESS, is duly followed-ALWAYS.” “We can only try to make meaning of this senseless tragedy by ensuring that this WILL not happen again, by affirming that the pursuit of justice does not in any way entitle any of us to the willful elimination of other people’s lives and by ensuring that we, as youths, do not destroy the honorable mantle placed on us as the future of our nation, by eliminating our present.” Meanwhile 13people from the Nigerian state of Omuokere Aluu have been arrested for the murders of the four Uniport (University of Port Harcourt) students. The male victims, named as Ugonna, Ilyod, Tekana and Chidiaka, were stripped naked, severely beaten and burnt alive after allegedly stealing BlackBerry phones and laptops. According to local reports, the students were accused of being members of a gang of armed robbers. They were hunted down by vigilantes from the village who accused the police of doing nothing. A video of the incident was published on the internet. The four-minute clip shows the lynch mob attacking the victims, before putting tyres on their necks and setting them ablaze.  ]]>