Robbers storm Rivers’ varsity hostel, rape female students

Suspected armed robbers unleashed terror on some hostels in the Rivers State University in Port Harcourt, dispossessing students of their valuables and sexually assaulting two female students.

It was gathered that the criminals had invaded Female Hostel D late at night and operated at will without any hindrance.

The robbers, who hit the premises with guns and machetes, reportedly raided the hostels before resorting to sexual harassment of two of their female victims.

The unpalatable incident had caused an uproar as female students took to protest within the campus, decrying repeated criminal attacks in their hostels.

Some of the students lamented that they had been repeatedly harassed by criminals, claiming that the state university authority had not been proactive in tackling the insecurity in the school. Vanguard reports.

One of the students said: “The boys came into the hostel from the backside where our laundering room is. They raped some and took many phones and laptops. After all this, the school security is telling us to wait, wait for what? If we are their daughters, will they allow this happen to them?”

Another student said: “There is no way you will say these criminals came from inside the school, they came from outside. If you are coming from outside that late you have to bribe the school security N1000. They will take N1000, then they will allow you inside the school.

“If they actually broke through the school security it then means the school security is involved. There were gunshots, there is no way the school security will claim they did not hear and the Mile 3 police is just here, but they did not do anything.”

However, police personnel led by the Chief Security Officer of the university, Chukuwma Ebere, pleaded with the students, assuring them that they would address the issues.

Confirming the development, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Grace Iringe-Koko, said normalcy has since been restored in the institution.