Nobel Laureate, Thomas Eliot, wrote about a troubled martyr’s death in a cathedral, but this was a death on campus. But it is no less shocking, and the reactions have been predictably heartrending. The authorities and students of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE) are struggling to come to terms with the brutal killing of a 200-level nursing student of the institution, Miss Modupe Deborah Atanda. Declared missing earlier last week, she was found dead last Wednesday night, buried in a shallow grave at a distance of about 30 metres behind the nursing lecture hall of the university. Reacting to the dastardly development, the management of the school, through a memo released by its Registrar, Mufutau Ibrahim, described the death as disturbing, adding that the university would stop at nothing to ensure that the perpetrators were brought to book. The statement said: “It is pertinent to promptly inform the entire university community that immediate steps have been taken in this regard, as all national security personnel have been drafted to handle the situation.

“As a matter of fact, several arrests have been made of suspects. To this end, all students are hereby directed to vacate the premises with immediate effect to ensure a proper, holistic and unimpeded, thorough investigation, please. It is worthy of note that armed security personnel have been quickly deployed for patrol, surveillance and security purposes. Rest assured that all steps will be taken by the university to fish out any and all culpable persons, and they shall face the full and unmitigated consequences of their action.” In the same vein, the Ekiti State Police Command, last Thursday, indicated that it had arrested 10 suspects in connection with the incident. This was just as students of the university demanded justice over the killing, urging the security agencies to get to the root of the matter and bring the perpetrators to book. A statement by the FUOYE Students’ Union President, Emmanuel Ajayi, and the Public Relations Officer, Elizabeth Akuraku, said: “The cause of death and the manner in which she died is a thing of great pain to the entire student populace in FUOYE”.

Happily, the Federal Government has ordered security agencies, the vice-chancellor of the university and the National Universities Commission (NUC) to ensure that a comprehensive investigation is done and the killers arrested and prosecuted in accordance with the laws of the land. Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, gave the directive while speaking at the 2021 and 2022 Nigeria Annual Education Conference (NAEC) in Abuja. He described the incident as heart-wrenching, extending condolences to the family of the deceased and restating the Federal Government’s resolve to ensure severe punishment for the perpetrators of the act.

This incident is indeed horrendous. That such a brutal killing could take place on a university campus, one of the few spaces assumed to be relatively secure in the country, is heart-rending, and we join stakeholders in calling for a thorough investigation of the case. At this very moment, we are thinking of Deborah Atanda’s parents, who sent her to school hoping to reap the rewards of joy that parents pray to reap in this clime, particularly in their old age. Sadly, the killers have dashed their hopes, leaving the family in deep agony that only the Almighty God can take away. The parents and family invested so much in their daughter, only for the killer(s) to cut her life short in such a brutal manner. It is indeed difficult to understand under what circumstances a student could have been murdered within the campus of a university, with the authorities and the students left to wring their hands, asking for security investigation regarding what really transpired. The university campus is not ordinarily a lonely and deserted place and it would be unusual to have movement within and around it that is not monitored by others. This is why it sounds strange that a student was declared missing within the FUOYE campus, only to be found buried behind one of the lecture halls on the campus, as confirmed by the management of the university.

We do not see how this gruesome murder could have been committed within the university campus without anybody getting a whiff of it while the university is in session, with students and staff all over the place. Evidently, the university management and its security personnel have to do more than bemoaning the murder; they must unravel what exactly happened to the young lady, assisted by security agencies. There must be a thorough and detailed investigation. The university owes the country the responsibility to get to the root of this gruesome killing and assure Nigerians of a modicum of respect for its capacity to oversee and cater to the life of all those under its care.

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