Gunmen suspected to be armed robbers have killed a final year undergraduate of the Niger Delta University (NDU), Amasoma, Bayelsa State.

It was learnt that the victim, Mr Obele Wilson, was an engineering student.

Wilson was reportedly attacked on Tuesday along the Sani Abacha Expressway, Yenagoa, in the branch of a commercial bank.

The hoodlums, armed with guns and other dangerous weapons, were said to have rounded up Wilson and some bank customers with the premises of the bank dispossessing them of their cash, mobile phones and other valuables.

It was learnt that before the ugly incident, the victim was in the business of electronic processing of NDU’s screening forms for admission seekers.

An eyewitness said that the deceased student was in the bank premises to solicit customers from persons who bought the NDU forms from the bank.

The source who wishes to remain anonymous said that the deceased reportedly argued with the armed robbers and they became furious and in the process gunned him down.

He said: “The killing of Wilson was very painful. He was a final year engineering student who was in the business of processing screening forms for admission seekers.

“He was on the premises of the bank on Tuesday to look for customers from among those who purchased the forms.

“Some armed robbers stormed the place and started collecting people’s valuables and cash at gunpoint. Wilson was said to have argued with them in the process they shot him.”

Sympathisers came to rush the victim to hospital but that he died on the way.

The eyewitness blamed the incident on the current strike in the university.

“If not for the strike, Wilson would have gone for his compulsory industrial training for final year engineering students. He was processing the training when the strike started,” he said.

The deceased was described by some friends as an active youth from Ogbia Local Government Area, immediate past Vice-President of the National Union of Bayelsa State Students and a leader of Ogbia Students Union.

Bayelsa is notorious for kidnapping for ransom, armed robberies and other violent crimes but the spat worsened recently following cash crunch occasioned by non-payment of workers’ salaries for the past six months.

Efforts to get reaction from the Bayesla Police Spokesman Asinim Butswat were unsuccessful as his mobile phone failed to connect.

•Photo shows gunmen.

Update news