Drugs, Guns Have Infiltrated Campuses, Lecturer Calls For More Police Presence

An Associate Professor at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Steve Wordu, has claimed that street crimes aided by drugs and guns are now happening on university campuses.

Reacting to last Thursday’s killing of a final year student of the Rivers State University by suspected cultists, he called for more policing of university campuses and better synergy between security agencies and tertiary institutions in the state.

It has been confirmed by both authorities of the RSU and the state police command that a student was shot dead by some assailants on the campus while first semester exams were going on.

While the Police Public Relations Officer, Nnamdi Omoni, had suspected the killers to be cultists, the school’s Public Relations Officer, Harcourt Whyte, said security had been beefed up on the campus after the killing.

But the UNIPORT lecturer while addressing newsmen in Port Harcourt on Monday, condemned the killing, saying the police should have known that the university security outfit was not armed enough to arrest such violent crimes.

He said constant police presence on the campus would have been strong deterrent to potential criminals.

He said, “university campuses have been fused into street life because of their location around towns and cities.

“So, the proliferation of guns and drugs that have been infiltrated into street lives have come into university campuses.

“The availability of these guns and drugs have made cultism tougher and deadly and university security outfit can not tackle it alone because the school’s security unit has limit as to arms bearing and enforcements.

“It is the effective and sufficient presence of the security agencies on campus that can deter violent crimes on campus.”