Edo State Police Command has arrested two students of the University of Benin, Samson Kennedy, a 200 level student of Biochemistry,and Wilfred Emmanuel, a 500 level student of Optometry over the drowning of their colleague, Francis Anuide, a 23-year-old final year student of Department of Chemistry of the same University.
The suspects were alleged to have gone with Aniude to Ekosodin River located in an off-campus community near the school, where he reportedly drowned last Thursday.
The victim’s body was recovered by local divers in the community on Saturday July 1.
It was gathered that the discovery of blood on the lips and peeling of skin around the neck region of the victim raised suspicion amongst family members and relatives who demanded for an autopsy.
Meanwhile, the remains of the undergraduate have been deposited at the morgue for autopsy, while the case has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID).
Edo State Police Publlic Relations Officer SP Chidi Nwabuzor, said the suspects were arrested to help the police in investigating the circumstances behind the death.
“The case has been reported long ago 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 occured. Arresting them is very very important, so that we can know what made them leave their hostel and went to that river at that point of time and what happened right there in the river”, he added.
