3 persons, including a lecturer’s wife, his daughter and a Medical Doctor were on May Day’s holiday abducted by a group of men from the underworld who raided UNICAL staff quarters with arms and ammunitions.
UNICAL Staff Quarters
Unical Staff Quarters; an ambient zone, located about 2 Kilometres away from the University’s academic area is a home for University lecturers and some students. University Staff, especially senior staff are given some chalets in the quarters to live with their families. Some students squat in the Boys Quarters section of the chalets, often ramshackle and rustic one-door rooms. The students get these rooms from lecturers who give them away for a token, as low as N15,000 (about $50), annually.
The Staff Quarters, about 10 Kilometre Square in land mass is sharing boundary with UNICAL Farm on the west and Qua River on the south.
Inhabitants of the quarters benefit from the quarter’s proximity to classrooms and offices, steady supply of water and light etc. The Quarters has a trekable distance from the school through foot-long shortcuts and bush paths which students take to their classes. The road leading to the Staff Quarters is well-tarred for vehicles and automobiles, making it one of the places in UNICAL with good road network.
Barr. Ekpeyong Bassey Iniama and Dr. Wilfred Ndifon are few of many UNICAL staff whose residence are in the Staff Quarters.
Barr. Iniama, with his family have been living in the Staff Quarters since 1998.
Barr. Iniama is the Deputy Registrar Academics of UNICAL Graduate School while Dr. Ndifon is a Lecturer in Medical Collage of the University.
The Staff Quarters has been a peaceful solace for the Iniamas, the Ndifons and a host of other academic families in UNICAL until recently when they started experiencing some flakes of attacks from men of the underworld.
9 armed men struck UNICAL Staff Quarters on May Day
On 2nd day of May, 2016, being the May Day Holiday, members of Knight of Saint Molumba (KSM) Zone 2 were in a meeting at Barr. Iniama’s residence.
The meeting is a periodic one which is hosted on rotation by the members of KSM. 2nd day of May was the turn of Barr. Iniama to host.
Barr. Iniama is a member of the Zone while his wife, Mrs. Iniama is the Treasurer.
“I went to Uyo that day but I didn’t plan to stay long”, said Barr. Iniama. He couldn’t meet up when the meeting started. “You know how bad our road is; you cannot tell how long a journey would take you.
“When I got to 8 Miles I received a call that there was sporadic gun shot in my area. I called my wife and she assured me that the meeting was going on peacefully. I wasn’t satisfied so I called my daughter; she was crying. At that point I knew something was wrong. It then appeared to me that my wife didn’t want to reveal something to me so that I won’t panic while travelling on the road”.
“But before then, people were calling me that there was chaos in my compound. So, I put a call across to the Airport Division of Nigerian Police Force (NPF) to report the case. I called the police men that were attached to us here. I also called the University Security officials.
“When I arrived my house, I met them at the meeting. Everyone was bemoaned.
How Dr. Iniama was kidnapped
Dr. David Ekpenyong Iniama is the first son of Barr. Iniama. He is a Doctor of Medicine and a graduate of UNICAL. He is currently working with the Society for Family Health (SFH) in Calabar.
Dr. David is one of the many children staying with their parents at the staff quarters. He goes to work from home and comes back in the evening.
He doesn’t normally come home late hours of the day. He was late that day because “there was a program which SFH was organising in Calabar which my son is playing a significant role. The program was supposed to start the next day so he stayed back in the office to put plans together ahead of the program”, said his father Barr. Iniama.
When he came back from work around 8PM, Dr. David Iniama was not anticipating any harm. To him, the day was like a normal day. He parked his car in open garage and steped out. Immediately, a two boys came from the bush, accosted him and started harassing him, dragging him along.
Mrs. Iniama was in the meeting of KSM, giving a financial report of the union to the members when she heard his son’s loud exchanges with the gang outside. She peeped thru the window and saw two men dragging her son. She immediately sensed danger and raised alarm.
She quickly ran outside and screamed at those boys “what has my son done? Leave him alone. Leave him alone”.
The boys insisted and kept dragging him into the bush. At the intervention of Mrs. Iniama, it became difficult for the boys to drag Dr. David. They signalled two other people who were readily ambushed nearby. They came out with guns; that was when the shooting started.
They shot sporadically into the air and threatened to shoot Mrs. Iniama but the lovely mother insisted and shouted “kill me and leave my son”. They overpowered Mrs. Iniama and assisted the other two who came initially to drag Dr. David away.
How Dr. Ndifon's Wife and Daughter were kidnapped
The helpless exchanges and the alarm raised by the Iniamas awakened the consciousness of neighbours. The Ndifons, staying two blocks away from the Iniamas were concerned so they decided to lend some help.
As soon as Mrs. Ndifon in the company of her daughter came out, they were abducted without any difficulty by a group of about 4 boys.
It was then that the residents realised that they were under attack.
Four simultaneous attacks were going on at the same time amidst sporadic firing of gun which was gathered to be the AK-47 riffle.
The entire Staff Quarters was raided by a group of boys who gained access to the vicinity through the Qua River located about 4 poles away from the quarters.
According Barr. Iniama, “by the time I came back, the police, the DSS, the Chief Security officer were all in my house. They had reacted to my call and I was very happy about that”.
Shortly after the attack, some inhabitants of Staff Quarters who reside upstairs heard a speed boat take off from the river bank. There was strong suspicion that the boat was the medium through which the abductors came.
Where the security men?
Staff Quarters has two security booths, located close to each other. But the residents are not satisfied with the services of the UNICAL security outfit so they resorted to the NPF. Each staff living in block QH/QI make a contribution of N3000 monthly into a common purse for security in the area. The money is paid to the Airport Division of the NPF who would send only 2 policemen to the quarters every night.
When the incident happened, the two policemen were in the second security booth about 50 Metres away from Dr. Iniama’s house. “They were not on patrol. They sat there doing nothing. That is how they do every day”, said a furious resident. Barr. Iniama added that “there is a limit at which the security can go. They are not guarding one house only but so many houses. So they cannot be everywhere at the same time”.
Before the abductors came
There has been series of attacks at the Staff Quarters since this year. Barr. Iniama recalled what happened on 13th of February this year. “There has been this was of attack in this part of the University recently. They came on the 13th of February this year, broke the door of Prof. Okezie’s house, collected over N300,000 from him. They went to the house of this same Dr. Ndifon, broke through and collected money from him. Now they have come by way of kidnap. This means they have found our vulnerability.
Our reporter equally gathered that one Prof. Osim’s house witnessed an attack early last month when a group of boys accosted him while in his house.
There is no security light in the quarters
Before Dr. David Iniama was kidnapped, the abductors laid ambush in nearby bush. It was as soon as he packed and alighted from his car that he was accosted from the boys already hiding in the bush. “The bush is a safe haven for abductors and bad elements”, said a resident who is a student in Faculty of Education.
“There is no security light here. The only security light was in my house but it cannot beam into the bush”, said Barr. Iniama.
“When the 13th February incident happened, we met with the Vice Chancellor and he was very much concerned about the welfare of his staff. He instructed that security lights should be fixed all over the quarters. We discovered that the contractor did not put the structures along our area. The only they put is the concrete base but there is no pole on it”.
“The other day, the Deputy Vice Chancellor came here and we showed him the half-done project. He immediately called the Director of Physical Planning to find out the reason for the delay and he said the contractor has decided to stop work because they have not given him money”.
‘We share boundary with villagers’, Victim's Dad
There are a lot of strange people who walk around the staff quarters area. They make use of the University’s land to plant shrubs, waterleaf plants, vegetables, maize plant, etc. They fetch water from the Staff Quarter’s water stand. It is normal to see strangers creep out from nearby bushes carrying fire woods, water cans, bush meats, fresh fish caught in the river etc.
There are people equally living by the river bank. They are farmers, fishermen, boat makers, hunters, etc. Barr. Iniama described the situation as improper saying that “the University is virtually living in the midst of a village. I have never seen this kind of exposure and threat since I came in here”.
When our correspondent visited the river, one of the men said he was invited by his brother to come over and do a fishing business. “I have been fishing here for more than 8 months. My business is booming”. Asked if he was there on the day of the attack, he said “no”.
ASUU shuts down classes
24 hours after the attack, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU) UNICAL Chapter declared one week solidarity sympathy break for the victims.
In a telephone interview with our corresponded, the Secretary of ASUU Dr. Jonas Ekung said he hasn’t been permitted to talk to the media. But, he reiterated that the ASUU members are not on strike. He said it is normal for the union to express sympathy to their members when they are faced with critical challenges such as this.
Dr. Ekung said ASUU is not on strike. He said apart from holding lectures, other academic activities can still go on.
Any hope for the Iniama's and Ndifon's?
“We have not heard from anybody. We don’t know where they were taken to. We are praying to God because he is our only hope in the time of trouble”, said Barr. Iniama when our correspond visited him.
There is a call for immediate action to be taken by the University. Barr. Iniama adviced: “the university should put a perimeter fence round this area to save us from the danger of attacks from outsiders”.
Another resident, 400 level student of English said: “the university should be more purposeful in their action. Apart from the open attack that we experience here, there are equally phone snatching and all of that. The University should do something. It is happening to staff now, who knows if it will be the turn of students next time and by then, no one can tell what the students are able to do”.
The school Public Relations Officer, Mr. Eyo Effiong Bassey did not take calls put through his line. He was not equally on sit when our correspondent visited.
14:00
Isaac Owili-Mensah
According to John Nsikak who lives at Goldie street axis, “some residents of the street took advantage of the situation to empty waste at odd hours of the night”. This is bad.
