Edo Police Command Probes Death Of 400 Level UNIBEN Student, Arrests Two Suspects

By Ayodele Oni

Edo State Police Command has arrested two students of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), in connection with the drowning of their colleague, 23-year-old, Francis Aniude.

Aniude, a final year student of the Department of Chemistry, reportedly drowned at Ekosodin River, where he went to swim with the suspects.

Those arrested are Samson Kennedy, a 200 level student of Biochemistry and Wilfred Emmanuel, a 500-level student of Optometry.

The duo, who were neighbours with Aniude, reportedly invited him to the Ekosodin River for sightseeing on the 29th of June,2023, where he was allegedly drowned by the duo, who ran back to the school campus to raise the alarm after the incident.

A student of the Department of Chemistry who claimed to be an eye witness, explained that “Francis was drowned in the Ekosodin River, located in an off-campus community near the school, and was declared missing.

“His body was recovered by local divers in the community on Saturday, July 1. The discovery of blood on his lips and peeled skin around his neck region raised suspicion amongst family members and relatives who are demanding for an autopsy.”

Confirming the report, the Spokesperson for the Edo State Police Command, SP Chidi Nwabuzor, said the suspects were arrested to help the Police in investigating the circumstances behind the death.

“The case has been reported at the Ugbowo Police Station. Eventually, the Divisional Police Officer and his men led a team of local divers to the scene of the incident, luckily enough, they were able to recover the body.

“The case has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for further investigations.

“Two persons were arrested, the reason being that they went together to go and swim in that river when the ugly incident occurred.

“Arresting them is very very important so that we can know what made them leave their hostel and go to that river at that point of time and what happened right there in the river.”