Varsity warns students to desist from raising false alarm

The authorities at Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt, River State, have debunked rumours that, a building collapsed in the institution leading to the death of two students of the university about 3am, last Wednesday.

Rosemund Green-Osahogulu, the acting vice chancellor of the University, said she wondered why rumourmongers went to town with such absolute falsehood that, there was a ghost in the building, which caused it to be vibrating, and made students to scamper for safety, which led to the unfortunate death of a student.

Green-Osahogulu, while speaking at the 2012/2013 matriculation of the institution, confirmed the death of one Charles Ohamara, a 200-level student of the French Department of the university.

She said Ohamara died instantly as a result of skull fracture, while four other injured students are responding to treatment at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), Choba.

The Acting Vice Chancellor said, there was no ghost around the institution, and no building collapsed, as was described in the rumour.

“I wonder why anyone would have thought it wise to raise a false alarm, that there was a ghost around, and that the building was vibrating and about to collapse, which made the students to scamper for safety, thus leading to the death of one student,” the Vice Chancellor stated.

She lamented the death of the student, saying she was yet to recover from the shock of the incident just like every other member of the university community; especially as the cause of it was only a rumour. She warned that the institution would not tolerate a repeat of such unfortunate incident in the future.

According to her, the vision of IAUE positions it as the ultimate global best among all institutions established for pre-service professional teacher education and continual in-service training and retraining of graduate teachers, with its corresponding mission to prepare and graduate the best professional educators, managers, administrators, researchers, evaluators, counselors, and consultants among others, for the education sector.

While admonishing the new students, she said, “The essence of an ivory tower where you are today is for the truth to be propagated. Knowledge is not false, knowledge is not lies.”

“Before you start running, you would have to at least, think, and pay straight attention; where is this danger coming from? And then you look around you to know the best option – the way out,” she advised.

The Vice Chancellor while advising students to always take precautionary measures said even if the building was really collapsing, jumping through the window of a two-storey building was not the better option for the students. “By jumping through the window, either you will die, or you will break your bones. Then why can’t that roof collapse on my head, and then let it be that I have scratches on my head, rather than jump and die,” Green-Osahogulu lamented.

Meanwhile, a total of 1,777 students who were provisionally admitted into the 2012/2013 academic session had their matriculation last week; the VC urged the students to stimulate the school management respectfully, courteously and politely into rising up to the simultaneous global challenges of technical innovation, responsible social value orientation and edifying visual networking.

“This role you can effectively play, mainly through strong personal commitment to learning through instructional participation and research activity,” she stated, advising the matriculating students to take their studies seriously and always speak the truth as kowledge is basically about the truth.

She further urged the institution’s students to remain peaceful and law abiding, go about their normal activities pending when their postponed examinations would be rescheduled as the school authorities are now putting preventive measures in place to avert future occurrence of any similar incident. She gave the names of the affected students as Charles Ohamara (dead), Eke Onwalebe Emmanuel (stable), Nletem Gospel (stable), Luke Togi (stable), Uchegbu Kenneth (stable), Gbamabo Hope (stable), and Zedek Anderson (stable).

 

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