The family of Lawrenta Uloko was on Friday thrown into sadness as a result of the death of their daughter, Lawrenta Uloko who was killed by a stray bullet accidentally discharged by a vigilante man.
Uloko was an HND II student of department of Banking and Finance and had her final exam on Friday, November 3rd, 2017.
She was invited to a celebration party marking the completion of their academic programme in the school when a stray bullet accidentally discharged by one of the vigilantes invited to secure the venue.
The vigilante was said to have tried to release a shot in to the air but which failed. As he was trying to lower his gun to know why the bulled failed to be discharge, the bullet released itself and hit Uloko.
She was said to be in the pool of her blood for a while before she was rushed to a private hospital where she gave up the ghost.
According to a student who does not want his name in print, he said, “The vigilante was lowering the gun to know why it failed to discharge a bullet after he fired. In the process, the bullet released itself without pulling the trigger and accidentally killed the girl who was among the celebrators.”
The Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr. Mustapha Oshiobugie, confirmed the incident and commiserated with family of the deceased student. He added that the matter had been reported to the police.
He said, “Examinations ended on Friday and the management made it clear that there should be no party on campus, no celebration on campus and no pouring of water on anybody on campus. “The narrative we have is that this fellow (Uloko) attended a party along Iyekhei Grammar School Road, which is about two kilometres east of the polytechnic and that the organiser of the party brought in a vigilante group to ensure security of the place.
“But unfortunately, there was an accidental discharge which killed the student. It is sad, it is unfortunate and management expresses very deep condolences to the family of the girl.”
The Commissioner of Police, Edo State, Johnson Kokumo, described the killing as accidental but confirmed that the investigation has commenced on the matter.
He said “it was a female student of Auchi polytechnic who, having taken her final exam, as is the tradition, was celebrating that she was done with school when the incident occurred.
He added, “It was clearly a misadventure; it was not an intentional killing as there is no record of any sort that there had been malice between the late student or any student for that matter and the vigilantes.”
