The Bauchi State Police Command has stated that the 500-level geology student of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University who was stabbed and later died in the hospital was attempting to rescue his girlfriend’s handbag from several assailants when the event occurred.
The final-year geology student, Joseph Agabaidu, according to multiple sources on the campus, was stabbed by some assailants while trying to steal his mobile phone.
Agabaidu, who is from Ankpa Local Government Area in Kogi State but now resides in Benue State, is the eldest of four children in his family that attend ATBU.
He was claimed to be returning to his lodge near the Yelwan Tudu market in the Yelwa area, a suburb of Bauchi, at approximately 7 p.m. on Saturday when he was attacked and transported to the hospital for medical care, but he died from the terrible injuries caused by the knife.
The incident provoked a protest among the school’s students, who gathered in large numbers at the Yelwa Campus to express their outrage at the insufficient security in and around the campus and to demand the attention of administration and the government.
Following the demonstration, the administration, in a statement signed by the Deputy Registrar Academic, Fatima Abdullahi, shut down the school and ordered students to depart the campus immediately since the protest by “miscreants” damaged the campus’s calm.
But the police, in a statement signed and made available to journalists on Wednesday by its Public Relations Officer, Ahmed Wakil, said that the deceased was with his girlfriend when assailants whose identity and number are still unknown snatched her handbag containing her mobile phone.
Wakil added that when the deceased tried to retrieve his girlfriend’s bag, they stabbed him on the side of his chest, but he later died while on admission at the ATBU Teaching Hospital.
He said: “Commissioner of Police Bauchi State Command, CP Auwal Mohammed, received in the audience the leadership of two student bodies (NUBAS and SUG) in his office at the State Command Headquarters.
“Their visits were prompted by the recent incident that occurred on December 2, 2023, where some unknown persons, numbers not ascertained, snatched a handbag containing a mobile phone belonging to a lady, one Philomena Ahobee (28), a student of Abubakar Tatari Polytechnic, Bauchi.
“As a result, her boyfriend, Agbaidu Joseph (28) of Anguwan Ngas, who is a student at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, tried to help her retrieve the handbag containing the phone. The assailant(s) stabbed him on the left side of his chest with a sharp knife.
“The victim was rushed to Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, for treatment, but he was certified dead while on admission by a medical doctor.”
The PPRO added that the leadership of the students union, while addressing the CP, kicked against the “violent protest by some erring students of the university” and applauded the CP for his swift response and for nipping it in the bud with the “violent protesters.”
He noted that the student leaders presented a letter of request to the Commissioner of Police soliciting more security presence around their communities, and “in his response, the Commissioner of Police began by observing a minute of silence in honor of the deceased.”
While accepting the letter, Wakil stated that the CP guaranteed them the deployment of the command’s intelligence and operational assets to the impacted areas, as well as the posting of additional soldiers and patrol vans for constant visible patrol in the area.
“The Commissioner of Police reiterated that the basic obligation of the police is to protect the lives and properties of the citizens; excessive use of force to quench violence is not the only last available option for a police officer in matters of conflict and crisis resolution.
“He said that in the process of policing society, certain ‘unavoidable problems’ come to the fore, saying that even at such a time, there is a need for the utmost demonstration of professionalism,” he said.
“Right cannot be fought through violence, but through reconciliation,” he cited the police chief as saying.
He stated that the police commissioner said that it was wrong for the students to have taken laws into their own hands in a matter that only the higher institutions and other relevant stakeholders can adjudicate, “thereby creating a vacuum for unscrupulous persons to hijack the protest and turn it into a violent one, leading to a confrontation with the school authority.
“The Commissioner of Police, CP Auwal Muhammed, assured that efforts are being intensified to apprehend the culprit(s) that perpetrated the inhumane dastardly act on the deceased and further assured that justice will be served unfailingly,” he said.
