The elder brother to Terhile Timothy Achinya, a Mechanical Engineering student at the Isa Mustapha Agwai Polytechnic, Lafia, Nasarawa State who was beaten to death by yet-to-be identified Nigerian Army personnel, has accused the army of failing to release his corpse after the incident.
While speaking with Newsmen on the phone, Joseph Achinya alleged that the Nigerian Army took the student’s corpse with them after the incident and up till the time of this report, his body has not been released.
“We have gone to the school and even my father came from the village over the issue. We have not seen his corpse because we learnt that the army has taken it away and all efforts to get to the army proved abortive.”
He also accused the Nigerian Army of acting on wrong information.
“We learnt that a man in the school asked my brother for money, which he said he did not have. The man went to inform the army officials stationed outside the school that he knew my brother was a “Yahoo boy.” Immediately they got this information, they got my brother and one other person who I learnt is still at the hospital and not dead yet. They beat them up and my brother lost his life.”
He denied that his brother was a “yahoo boy or cultist.”
“My father is in the village. He is the one that usually sends us money at school and also other small works that we do. They killed my brother for no reason” he told Newsmen.
Newsmen earlier noted that soldiers beat the student to death for allegedly being involved in cultism.
It was learnt that Achinya’s death had sparked outrage around the polytechnic community as the Acting Rector of the institution, Dr Nurudeen Mu’azu Maifata, sued for peace.
The Students Union Government President of the polytechnic, Jacob John Mutuwa, who confirmed the ugly incident to newsmen said, “It all started when a student named Samuel Ejembi informed some military men in Lafia of some students who are alleged to be involved in cult activities.
“The soldiers picked up some of the accused students at Eji World, an entertainment centre opposite the Poly campus.”
When Newsmen contacted the Army spokesperson, Major General Onyema Nwachukwu, while acknowledging the request for comments and seeking where the incident happened, to which he was availed, he was yet to reply as of the time of filing this report.