A caretaker has allegedly killed a student of the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri, identified as Anthony Chinweotito Emmanuel, over issues surrounding payment of rent.
Anthony, a first-year student of the Department of Building Technology, was hit in the stomach area with a plank of wood last Tuesday at Ezinwanne Lodge but died Saturday night in a hospital.
According to a member of the institution’s students’ union, the caretaker, whose name could not be ascertained, had turned off the water supply of the lodge because some students refused to pay the full house rent.
In their defence, the students said they did not live in the hostel between March 2020 and January 2021 due to the COVID-19 lockdown, and so should not be made to pay the full rent.
They later found a way to turn on the tap to get water. When the caretaker saw the faucet open, he was furious and he used a saw to cut open the water pipe.
This allegedly led to an argument between him and the students, and he allegedly hit one of them, Anthony, with a plank of wood.
The caretaker was said to have run away immediately, leaving the deceased in a pool of blood.
Some fellow students took Anthony to a nearby hospital where he was rejected before he was later accepted at the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, where he died on Saturday.
